I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You
by Justin Hollydale
Summary: Chapter 9, finally. Sorry for the delay. I'm bad at story summaries so I'll let you read the story yourself. And be sure to read the note at the end.
1. 1: Carelessness of My Soul

Ranma ½

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. I own none of the characters, so do not try to get any money from me. Besides, I'm broke. This was only done out of fun and as a continuation of sorts to my previous story. Now on with the story.

Chapter 1: Carelessness of My Soul.

The moon shone across the body of the woman laying in bed, a heavy blanket laying across her body. Her hair was loose from its usual style, something she had done recently as a symbol of her more relaxing life, and it glowed with unearthly radiance beneath the light of the moon. This dim white light coupled with the already otherworldly color of her hair gave her the look of someone that could not exist on earth. And in this captivating moment the woman rolled over and placed her head on the pillow next to her which had obviously been occupied just a few minutes earlier by a wayward companion.

This companion was not far away, in fact he was standing out on the balcony looking up at the shining moon, his black hair lit and shining with healthiness. The slight breeze blew his wayward pigtail around which hung about a foot long to the center of his back. His hair was shaggy and his face was the very picture of a man that probably had one too many suitors in the past, meaning he was attractive to say the least. He looked out in thinking while his personal goddess, at least she was in his mind, slept restlessly in the bed they both shared. But it was not her stirring that caused him to wake, indeed it was very much the opposite way around. For it was true to say that his being awake was causing her to stir and he feared that she would soon awake and wonder why he had been outside in the first place. Ah, making such a person worry unnecessarily, he should get back to bed but the doubts that plagued him did not allow for such action. The man that sat on top of the roof looking at him and smoking a cigarette did not help his feelings any.

"You'll lose control you know," the man was addressing him in the same matter of fact tone he always did.

"I've held on this far," He rebutted, his black sleeveless shirt billowing in the wind and his grey sweatpants flapping.

The man grinned in a way that could only be described as not nice, and leapt down from the roof to land lightly in front of him. Yellow eyes met deep blue eyes before wind blew a strand of long brown hair across one of the eyes of the offending man. It was then that the first man noticed something, his eyes was yellow and held the look of an animal more than a man. The man across from him drew up to his full height and looked down at the slightly shorter man, in low light, this made his eyes look shadowed out except for that one eye he had seen earlier, by the big red metal headband on the man's forehead.

"Yes you have, boy," the man said condescendingly, "but how much longer do you think you have. Days, months, or years? Hours? Can you be sure that that part you fear won't get the best of you."

"I'm not weak," the man responded with a flat emotionless voice, "I don't need anything to help keep myself in check."

The man dressed in his red vest and black pants made a sound of annoyance, "And that's why you were out here with that pathetic look on your face."

"That's none of your business."

"It's all of my business when she's involved," the man responded, somehow sounding angry without actually raising his voice, "If you mess up once do you think she'll be safe from you. She's strong but could she defend herself from you? And before you answer ask yourself if you could attack her in the same situation.

He looked down at the ground and suddenly his resolve seemed to shatter, "I know, it's just that I don't want her to see me weak. She needs all of my strength, not some guy who relies on others to survive."

There was a sigh then, "It would be worse if you attacked her in a fit of rage, and trust me, it will happen if you continue to go without keeping it in check. I can help, I can put a limiter on your power that will only let it out if you want. That way you won't change in a fit of rage."

The man in the black shirt nodded, "Thank you, but just so I know what would it look like?"

The man seemed to think for a second, "Well it needs to go over the mark that controls your change. In your case it's difficult as you have a mark on each forearm, in that case it would have to be some kind of bracer. The problem is that you already have natural bracers."

"No, that's just how I keep it, it's functional," the other man responded, "I can make them go away and then wear the limiters, see."

The man nodded approvingly as the bracers disappeared, "Alright, it shouldn't take too long. A weak at most and it will be done, just don't let your temper out of control until then."

"Alright," The man said, "Thanks Sol."

The man gave a wild grin, "Yeah, well don't go thanking me quiet yet."

And in the blink of an eye the man was gone, leaving him alone on the balcony to think about what had just transpired. The man knew that this was necessary for him to continue his life with her but he also felt that he was taking the easy way out, something he had never done in his life before. This was not the usual type of challenge he was used to, it was not even a fight against himself, it was a fight against something that was living inside him and he knew that it was more powerful than him and without help it would eventually consume him and leave him a shell of his former self. Not that he cared much about that, if he was the only one effected then it would have been fine but now he had others to think about, his wife and his daughter who was having enough trouble as it was without the addition of her father possibly going insane.

"Ranma?"

He looked over at the woman he had been trying to return to for some time now, she was looking at him with amazing vivid eyes that shone crimson in the moons lucid light. She was dressed in a sheet and looking at him with what he thought might have been concern. He smiled, for he had always wanted to be the strong one but she always outdid him somehow. Physically he had the upper hand but she had more drive than he had by far, she would survive for a long time even if something happened to him.

"I'm fine," he said softly, "please go back to bed."

The woman was about to turn away back towards the bed when she spoke again, "Why were you talking to him? Is something wrong?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nothing that you should worry about."

"It's your power," She said matter-of-factly which caused a jump of surprise from him.

"What?" He was trying to play it off for her sake, he would not have her worry about him, of course he could worry about her never the opposite.

The woman regarded him with a look of concern and sadness, "You know I'm not stupid, Ranma. Naïve, yes, but not stupid, don't try to act like nothing's going on. I love you too much to just let you do things behind my back. Please tell me."

Now this was a predicament, if he told her what was going on she would worry and if he did not she would get angry, he took a deep breath, "Alright, I'll probably regret this but the truth is, I've been starting to lose my hold on the Gear side of me. It's been happening more and more in the past month and I told him because he already knew. He's going to make some bracers for me to limit the power. I wanted to tell you Dizzy."

The woman looked down at the ground and seemed to be shaking though he was not sure if that was from the cold or from anger. He was pretty sure that he was screwed no matter what he did so he just stood and waited for her words. They would be words that hurt but he had been an idiot to try and keep such a secret from her in the first place, so as far as he was concerned he deserved any spiteful words she said to him. She was normally reserved but that did not mean she did not have a strong angry streak within her.

"Why do you think it necessary to keep these secrets from me?" The woman asked in a sad and quiet tone, "I just don't understand. Do you not trust me?"

That phrase caused him to close his eyes and recoil as if someone had just made a noise he did not enjoy in the least, "No, Dizzy, I'm sorry but I did it because it hurts me to cause you to worry and I knew that you would. I already lost one person I love a long time ago and I don't want to lose you. I want to live with you for the rest of my life. I must be a horrible man."

He had turned his back and faced the moon with his back to her and his head down to look off of the balcony at the dimly lit grass below. He had really done it now, not only did he hurt her but she was angry on top of that, and hurt. All of the things he had attempted to prevent had just manifest all at once. He really must have been the worst kind of person to cause that type of thing to happen.

"No," She had come up behind him and embraced him from behind, her small frame held against his back and her gentle hands pressed firmly against his chest, left cheek pressed against the center of his back, "That's not true, you are not a horrible man, you're just an idiot who wants to carry a great weight by himself. You won't share you're pain or hurt so you're content to let it crush you in order to save others from the pain."

"Dizzy," Ranma could say no more, he was at a loss for words because, of course she had been right with every word.

"But you need to know that this hurts those you love and who love you," Dizzy continued, "So please stop being an idiot and tell me what's wrong."

Ranma sighed, "If I tell you will you stop crying? I hate when you cry because I know it's my fault."

The woman nodded with her face still against his back, "Yes."

"I'm not sure I should be with you until my limiters are finished," Ranma said after some time, "I don't feel it's safe."

Dizzy seemed to freeze up, "Why?"

He gripped the rail hard, "Because if I lose control I may hurt you, and as much as you may deny it, I would not be me so don't even say I could never hurt you. You're right, I couldn't but I can't tell what this other… thing inside me could be capable."

"One week?"

Ranma turned around and looked at her, "What?"

"One week, right? That's all you need." Dizzy said reluctantly.

"That was what I was told," Ranma said at length, "So that is all I'll take."

The woman nodded, "Alright, but please don't make me wait longer, be back after a week, okay."

The man smiled and gave her a gentle squeeze with both arms, "It's a promise."

She nodded, "Good, because you always keep you're promise," The blue haired woman responded, "Just be back and don't make me worry."

The man turned to her and embraced her in the cool air, taking in the scent of her blueberry colored hair. She was the picture of someone that was very different from anyone else he had ever met. She was sweet, kind, and gentle but at the same time she was not afraid to defend herself if there was no other way. She was small in his arms but she was strong, he had not doubt that he would have some trouble fighting her if they had to go at it seriously. Her pale skin against the moonlit night made her appear as if she was a glowing being from another world. That thought caused Ranma to hold her tight in fear of it, for beings from another world had a tendency to return there eventually and he could not bare for her to go. Of course he had to let her go, he had to in order to protect her but perhaps that did not have to happen until morning. If it did not have to happen until morning then it would wait until morning, and he would be sure that this would be a memorable night for her. And so the two of them kissed passionately as if it was the first and last time it would ever happen and he led her back to the comfort of their bed. And the details of that were lost to their passion from then on.

Then the morning came and Ranma felt the reluctance of the day beginning to creep up on him. This, however, was different, it was not the normal reluctance that told him sleeping a couple more hours would do him some good. This reluctance told him that something important might go missing if he woke up, and he knew what that was, and he had just convinced himself last night that it was the only way he could keep this important thing, this person, safe from himself. Would it hurt her for him to leave though, he knew it was not a question that should be asked, yes it would hurt her he knew that. He also knew that she could stand the pain of him leaving for the short time he would be gone, his daughter, she was at the age that she might suspect something but he would be back before anything would come from that. Was there something else that he was forgetting, nothing he could think of, who then was he forgetting about.

With a sigh he removed his miserable carcass from bed and started back for his weeklong leave of absence from his family that he had come to love. He was in pain but he was also happy because this would allow him to be at peace with the fact that he would not cause them pain physically as well as mentally. Plus he would have time to think about his life and maybe he could fix some things that he had been putting off. There was always some chance of that, but still reluctance would be with him but that would not change no matter how much it was true that he had to leave. So he finished packing and with that he walked over to the bed where the woman lay that would plague his dreams while he was away, and he brushed the hair away from her forehead and kissed her gently to wake her. He would not see her for a week so he would be sure he said goodbye to her before he left, it was less painful for everyone that way.

"Hey you," she said to him with a smile, "I guess you're going now."

The man let a sad smile cross his lips before he nodded, "I'm so sorry Dizzy, I want to stay but…"

"Go," She said quietly, "I know that you want to say, you have always been kind to those you care for, but there is no need, I know. Follow the path you have chosen and I will still be here at the end to greet you."

Ranma embraced her gently with a single phrase escaping his lips before he let go, "Thank you, I will be back."

And with that he was gone from her life even if it was for a short time, and it was because of this that her child found her crying in her bed. Though she did not know what happened she knew that tears only came when bad things happened, at least in her experience, so she climbed into bed with her mother and embraced her, receiving a hug in return. Finally Dizzy stopped crying and told her daughter that they had to get her to school and she had to go to work. He had said he would be back, he had made it a promise, and after all, Ranma Saotome never broke his promise.


	2. 2:I Was a Little Lost Boy When I Met You

Ranma ½

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. I own none of the characters, so do not try to get any money from me. Another installment, I think I'll try to keep this series down to five or less pages, a little more manageable. This segment actually goes back in time to take a look at what happened to a certain couple during the time between chapter one of this story and the last chapter of the previous story. Do not worry it will join the first chapter eventually. And so here we go.

Chapter 2: I Was a Little Lost Boy When I Found You

He was really annoyed right now, not that this was an emotion that was not uncommon to him. In fact he was annoyed quiet a lot, recently he had been almost constantly in this state for one reason or another. Now the current cause of his annoyance was the fact that he was lost, which also was not unusual for him. What was unusual for him was the fact that he did not have anyone to blame for his current state. He had just become lost and there was no real reason for it, he was not angry at anyone, he was not trying to find the bathroom, he did not even have a map that he could misread. The only thing that caused him to be lost right now was the fact that he had lost the only man who had ever been close to being his friend, they had been rivals for such a long time.

It had been just a month ago and he could still remember the scene when he had arrived. That was the first time he had ever seen something so unbelievable, there was the Ultimate Gear laying dead in front of him, and across from the Gear was a man that he had always thought invincible laying on the ground. From where he stood he could see blood spreading out from his body and turning the snow around him to a steaming slush of red before the cold froze it once again. On top of the man was a woman that he had wanted to kill at first but those feelings had died down. Now he felt a stab of pain through his heart when he saw her laying on top of him, yelling at him, begging him to stay with her. He wanted to help but there was nothing he could do against death, for all of their strength, neither man was immortal, nor did they believe they were. Slowly he walked up to her, feeling a sense of disbelief with every step, despite the scene he wanted this to be a dream, this was not true, it could not be.

As he came near her she looked up at him with hateful tear filled eyes, those eyes that always hurt him, "I suppose you want to kill me. Go ahead and do it then, I know how much you hate my kind. I have no reason to live now. So just go ahead!"

The man felt regretful, he certainly hoped it came across in how he looked, she was still unaware that he had changed, "No."

And there it was, her stunned silence, tears came and she could not comprehend what he said, "You hate me so much you want me to live with my pain then, you do not want me to take the easy way out."

"You are incorrect," He said quietly, "He loved you, I loved someone once also, actually two people, it was very interesting in those days. I found out how easy it is to lie to yourself to make your own reality for yourself. There is no way I could kill you, because if I did that he would have died for nothing."

She dried her tears and looked down at the dead man's body, the blood was starting to turn dark, "Why? I did not have to be this way."

"Such are the words of those who don't understand life and death," the man said, "I said those same words a long time back, I was a bit younger then, still I have found no answer for such a question. Life goes on around you and you would like to stop and take a breather but before you can you get old and realize that you have wasted you're life. No matter how much you wish you could change things, the past is the past and the future is the future. Try to change either and what will happen?"

He knelt down and helped her stand from her position next to the body, she weakly accepted his help, "I know what you're saying, but he was always reckless, I should have been there to stop him, to help him think."

"And what would that accomplish?" Ryouga asked, "Do you know the consequences of any action you take. Sure you can guess, that's all anyone can do without knowing all of the changes to come."

The man knelt down at picked up a rock and he tested the weight twisting it around between his fingers and he continued to lead her towards where everyone was waiting for them. He had always been good at philosophy, that was his strong suit, he was never a genius in the art but he understood the technical side very well. It made up for the natural ability that he lacked, Ranma had that ability and that was why he was so good. Unfortunately it made him too overconfident for his own good, and that had what had been his downfall in the end. Of that Ryouga had no doubt, he had known the man long enough to know that if Ranma thought someone was down then he would let his guard down just enough to get a hit in. None of them had been fatal until now, he had been that lucky through his life, always when it came to the art. When it came to dealing with people, that was a totally different story. He stopped suddenly and brought the rock he was holding up in front of the face of the girl he was leading.

"See this rock," Ryouga said, and she nodded, "I can throw this with enough force to kill an animal," Ryouga closed his fist around the rock and turned in a random direction, "If I throw this rock here, where there is nothing around what do you think I will hit? An animal? Nothing? Can you say for sure?"

She seemed to be thinking about what he was trying to say, "There is nothing around to hit."

Ryouga threw the rock and suddenly a dear jumped from behind a tree, the rock struck the animal dead on and caused it to stumble and fall, "That was a lot of nothing there. You get what I'm saying."

Dizzy stared at the animal as it tried to get back to its feet and started to go to it when Ryouga grabbed her arm, "Let go, I have to help it."

"What would you do?" Ryouga asked quietly, "You said there was nothing around and I cast the stone, aren't you to blame for this. Or am I the one to blame?"

The blue haired girl looked back at him in shock, "You said 'I should have been there to stop him' but what would that have changed? You can sit around and think of all that could have, would have, should have been, but the fact remains that nothing will change from that. The only thing we can do is learn and hope that we recognize the signs when it happens again."

Slowly the deer regained its feet and ran off as the two of them started to walk once again, "So are you able to just move on as if nothing happened?"

The man ran a hand through his black hair and adjusted his yellow and black bandanna, "No, I doubt anyone ever could, to just move on would be inhuman and I don't consider you or me that. All I'm saying is for you to greave and accept what has happened is fine, just don't do it forever. I don't want to see you like that and I know Ranma will not want to see you like that."

The woman looked at him in surprise, "You say this as if he's still alive."

Ryouga shrugged, "Dizzy, I have a question, do you believe in a soul?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by that," the woman answered in a tone that was unsure of itself.

The man sighed and looked off into the distance, his green eyes perceiving the building that everyone was waiting in standing in front of them. He was not sure how to explain such a thing, it was of a corporeal nature and was thusly hard to explain. It was not a ghost of a person, it was something like an idea, but even that was not right. For those who already knew what a soul was it was easy to make these comparisons, but to explain it to someone who had no idea what one was, that was difficult.

"I can't really explain what a soul is," Ryouga admitted, "It's like the essence of a person. You can't see it, but it's their in all things, it's what makes each one of us different. Whether you believe in it or not, part of Ranma's essence, his soul, has been left in you. All of those memories you still have of him, that's his soul. It's the love he had for you so that you will not be lonely, he would want you to move one, he does not like to see you sad. He never liked to see anyone he cared for sad. He put all of this weight on his shoulders so that others are not hurt. You get what I'm saying?"

The woman looked thoughtful for a second before she nodded, "I believe so, you're saying that a part of him is in me, but where in me?"

Ryouga stopped and turned to her, pointing a finger at the left side of her chest where her heart beat, "This is going to be a little cliché, but he is in here, you're heart."

"And this part of him wants me to stop hurting and be happy, right?" Dizzy said.

The man in the bandanna nodded once silently as the two of them continued walking into the building where everyone was waiting, "Yes, that is what I'm saying, I know him well enough to know what he would want for you. Be strong and live, that is what he desires of you."

"I see, thank you, Ryouga," Dizzy said as she bowed to him and turned towards a corridor where her room was.

"You're welcome," The man said before he turned with a sigh and hung his head, "This is the last favor I do for you Saotome, I hope to meet you later on the other side."

A woman with pink hair in a ponytail behind her head and a scar over one eye that drew it shut walked up to him, "I take it you had a good talk, huh?"

He looked up and shook his head, "I really don't feel like talking about it."

"I didn't exactly ask you're permission," the woman retorted.

Ryouga snarled in her direction and pointed a finger in the woman's face, "Leave me the hell alone. Who the hell do you think you are, just leave me the hell alone!"

The woman grabbed the front of his yellow shirt and drew him close to her, "I'm someone who has seen a hell of a lot people I care for die. Just like you, don't be so conceited as to think you're the only one who's lost people."

Ryouga was about to yell back at her when he realized suddenly that she was right about what she said. He suddenly felt tired, very tired, he pushed past the woman and went to his own room to lay down for a little while. The man closed his eyes and fell asleep for a while, he had no idea how long he was asleep but when he woke it was dark outside, and very cold. Though the cold had never bothered him all that much he decided to wrap himself up in a cloak anyway and go outside to take a walk. He wanted to know his way around this place if danger came, not that it would help since he just got lost all of the time anyways. Still, he needed something to do since he was not tired anymore and he needed to think about some things. So he dressed himself in his normal traveling clothes and donned his backpack with weapon/umbrella strapped to it, and walked out of his room. As he was walking down the corridor he heard crashing sound coming from a room nearby and curiously went to investigate what the cause of such a sound was. Getting closer he could hear the sound of someone who was probably quiet drunk yelling something incoherently. The closer he got to it the more it sounded like a woman unintelligibly screaming, not loudly, but screaming nonetheless. When he got to the door he saw who the person was, it was the woman that had yelled at him earlier, and apparently he had said something to offend her by the words she was using around his name.

From what he could see when he cracked the door open was the fact that she was very drunk. On the ground was a broken bottle that probably held the liquid that had caused her to be in the state in the first state. This woman was obviously not a calm drunk, and she seemed to have quiet the supply of drink with her. The man sighed and pushed the door open all of the way, causing the woman to look up at him as he came through the door. She did not seem happy to see him there by the look in her eyes, in fact he could see her start to turn to the place where her sword was laying just a couple feet away from her. Ryouga sighed and slowly drew his umbrella from the top of his backpack, it was a special umbrella that served the purpose of a weapon also. He would try to calm her down but he had a feeling that that would be difficult with her current state, so better to be prepared.

"Look, I don't want to fight," Ryouga said as he readied his umbrella and stared at her ultra sharp looking sword the woman carried, "You just looked like you needed to talk."

The woman narrowed her one good eye at him and rushed the man with such speed that he was immediately sent on the defensive. Ryouga was so surprised at the how fast the woman was that he did not have time to put up a good fight. The woman kept pressing her advantage until Ryouga and her were out in the hallway, allowing Ryouga to jump back and try to maintain distance between the two of them. Of course this failed because as soon as he jumped back she ran forward in an attempt to meet him on the ground. Ryouga grunted as he barely caught an obscenity about to slip past his lips, and looked around for a way to change his momentum in the air. Right now he was at the floating point in his jump just before he started his descent and time was running out.

This time Ryouga allowed the curse to slip from his lips as he grabbed one his bandanna from his forehead and started to twirl it around. He was glad that he still had the tendency to wear multiple bandannas even if he had not needed to use such a weapon in a long time. He was not trying to aim for her, but for her weapon, hopefully it would buy him some more time. With the bandanna becoming rigid with his spirit energy he flung it at the woman, though they were just rigid enough to fly and not actually hurt her if he had miscalculated. Apparently he had been right as she went for his bait, allowing him to land safely a ways away.

"Look lady," Ryouga yelled in frustration, this was not what he wanted, "I just want to talk, okay, so cool you're head."

"Why the hell did you just barge into my room then?" The woman retorted, "You were probably hoping to catch me changing."

Well that about did it, "You arrogant woman, I would never do something like that!"

With that, the man rushed forward and brought his heavy umbrella down hard, the woman barely managing to block the attack. He could see she was struggling with the attack and so he pressed it and saw her start to retreat back. Ryouga did not want to hurt her but nobody called him a pervert without him trying to defend it. All he wanted to do was help someone out and it turned out that they tried to kill him, this must have been how Ranma felt all of those years back. The woman was still fighting his strength, which surprised him as most people would try to back off or give up by now. Still, the man had some strength to spare and he decided to let her know that fighting him would not be the wisest thing to do. With a slight flex of his arms, the man tensed himself for his next move, it would be risky. He allowed her to start forcing his unorthodox weapon back before he stepped around to the side of her and with great force threw her across the room with his own weapon providing the leverage. Then something happened next that he did not intend, and he cursed himself for not taking into account his surroundings, the woman was flung back into a wall hard enough to leave an indention in the hard stone wall.

The scene caused the man to lose his anger as if a rubber band had just snapped back on him, a sick feeling making itself known in his stomach. Putting his weapon away he quickly ran up to her, cursing at himself for being an idiot the whole time, and knelt down to check if she was alright. What he found was not promising, she was unconscious for one, and she had blood coming from her mouth, indicating internal injuries. The thing that surprised him was that despite the fact that she was out like a broken light she still had a death grip on that damn sword of hers. Ryouga cursed, he had really screwed this one up, he picked the woman up and took her back to the room that she had been staying in, and with any luck he would find what he needed to treat her there.


	3. 3: Pain is Modern Day Love

Ranma ½

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. I own none of the characters, so do not try to get any money from me. I am truly sorry for the heavy flashback parts, I feel it is the only way to accomplish what I want from this. On to Chapter 3, and beyond.

Chapter 3: Pain is Modern Day Love.

Ryouga grumbled as he drew himself up from the ground and brushed himself off, he had been thinking of that day again. He was not sure what was so memorable about it but it seemed to be taking up a lot of his normal thinking. She was good looking sure, if in a tragic kind of way, and she was strong, but he had met other women that were strong also. There was just something about her that was different, something he could not put a finger on. Sighing he shook his head and continued to walk. He was not even sure where he was going anymore. Perhaps he was searching for a reason to his life, perhaps he was just looking for another place to rest his head. He just did not know anymore, everyone was gone, he was the only one left, well him and Shampoo. He seriously doubted that she would even remember him.

Thinking hard could take its toll on you, especially when it caused you to miss signs that you were headed towards a cliff. Ryouga yelled as he felt the ground give way beneath him and looked down to see a pool of water below him. This caused him to yell even more until he hit the surface and caused a huge splash to fly into the air. A few minutes later a small black pig with a yellow and black bandanna on and dragging a backpack appeared from the side of the pond and started to take a small stove and a pot from its backpack. It was difficult but he eventually set it up so that he could boil some water and change back to his human form. When the water finally boiled he tipped the water over on himself and with a shimmer he was back in his original form. Dressing in his spare clothes and hanging the wet clothes he had dragged from the pond along with the backpack, Ryouga decided to make some food. As he made the food his mind drifted back to that day long ago.

When she woke there was a lot of pain that accompanied her awareness, like the fact that it felt as if she had been thrown into a stone wall by a very strong opponent… Oh yeah, that had been dumb. Of course she had been drunk at the time, she still was drunk for that matter, so she was not surprised that she had done something like that. The question was the fact that she seemed to be in her own room, wrapped in bandages from wherever a person would get bandages in a place like this. She tried to get up but found that she was a little weak to do such a thing so she just lay back and grumbled.

"You're awake, huh?" It was his voice that spoke to her from the side, "Sorry about the hit, I got a little angry and that tends to happen."

The woman looked from him to the ceiling above her, "Yeah, can't say I didn't deserve it though."

Ryouga looked over at her in surprise, he was silent at the comment as he was not sure what it meant. It seemed as though she was referring to how she was acting earlier, at least at first, but now there seemed to be some deeper meaning in the way she said the words. With a sigh he turned away from her again and closed his eyes, why must things always be so difficult.

"What kind of pain does a person have to go through to be like that?" Ryouga asked in an offhanded manner, "I can tell you've had it rough just by looking at you."

"Well you're whole village has to be wiped out before you're eyes for starters," The woman said sadly, "Then you have to lose an eye and an arm before you swear vengeance on the man who did such a thing to you."

Ryouga nodded, "I see, I'm sorry for the painful memories, please get some rest."

"I'm still drunk you know," the woman said absently.

The man grunted once, "Yeah, I had some also, not bad stuff for forgetting painful memories."

"I know," the woman said, "Could you give me some more."

At this the man was caught, on one hand he was not sure that she should have some, on the other hand he did not want her to get angry in her current state, not like it would hurt that much anyways, right, "Alright, just as long as you promise to rest."

The woman took the cup with the drink in it and sipped at it for a bit as Ryouga poured himself some more, "So why are you drinking?"

The man looked up at the question and shrugged, "Well I just lost a person who was probably the only link to my past and a friend. I think I have a right to drink. By the way, what was you're name again?"

"Baiken," the woman said after a drink of alcohol, "It seems you've lost a lot also."

Ryouga took a deep drink and responded, "Well, a lot of people have lost a lot. Genocide is never pretty. I'm going outside so you can rest."

"Alright," The woman responded before she finished the drink quickly and closed her eyes.

"Good night, Baiken," Ryouga said as he walked outside.

Outside the door was a window that seemed designed by a giant, a strange thing to have in a base that housed mercenaries. Ryouga walked up to it and looked outside to see that it was snowing even harder than it had been earlier that day. Days like this always made him long for the company of others, something about the snow made him more lonely than usual. He had no idea how long he stood and stared, drinking as he did so, but when he looked down at his empty cup he knew then that something was missing from his life. Friends and family were all gone and the life he once knew had ended with a single swipe of a blade. It had been years since he had seen any of them, or even paid respects, Ryouga ran a hand through his messed up hair. It had been so hard for him and the whole time he had been on his own.

"It always makes me feel lonely when I look at this kind of scene," Baiken's voice said suddenly from behind him, "Sorry for not doing as you said, I always was bad at that kind of thing."

Ryouga turned to her and shrugged, "No, it's alright, you probably feel the same way I do right now."

"How's that?" The woman asked.

"Lonely, needing someone to talk to, angry at yourself for the way everything has turned out," Ryouga looked like he wanted to go on but stopped, "Sorry."

Baiken took a big long gulp out of the bottle she was holding and wiped her mouth, "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I guess we're a pair of losers, huh?"

Ryouga chuckled, "Yeah, pretty pathetic."

The silence that went on between them after that was not uncomfortable, it was a silence that two people shared when all they wanted was one another's company. They looked at the snow falling for a long time, so intently that neither of them noticed the way they slowly crept closer. Then Ryouga felt the two of them bump and he snapped back to reality with an embarrassed blush crossing his face.

"Sorry, I didn't realize I was closing in on you," The man said as he backed off quickly with a little fear in his eyes.

Baiken seemed a little hurt by this, "You don't need to act like I'm going to kill you!"

"Well considering how you reacted earlier I think I have the right to be afraid of you," Ryouga retorted, "I don't know what kind of mood swings you go through when you're drunk out of you're mind."

The woman took another big drink out of her bottle, finishing it off, before she threw it at him, "Screw you buddy, normal people don't just burst into a person's room unannounced."

Ryouga looked at the shattered remains of the bottle, "Yeah, and normal people don't just start slicing away without thinking either!"

The two glared back and forth for a while before Baiken let out a growl and ran towards him. Ryouga took the unexpected attack head on and the two of them slid backwards into the woman's room. The man was about to yell at her about charging at him but he found his anger stopped when he saw the pain in her eyes. It seemed to be both a physical and emotional pain, and suddenly all of his anger disappeared. What replaced it was something closer to a frantic need to help the woman. There was also the fact that her wounds had not fully healed.

"Hey, you alright?" Ryouga asked, afraid to move and injure the woman more, "Stupid, don't hurt yourself again."

Baiken winced as she felt a stab of pain run through her side, "Shut up! What do you care? We just met and you try to treat me like some fragile little girl, just shut up already. I have taken care of myself for this long, I don't need you're help!"

By this time Ryouga had composed himself enough to be a little more calm than he had been, "Look, please calm down, I'm not trying to treat you like a frail little girl. I just want to make sure that your wounds don't get worse than they already are."

The woman tried to get up off him but another stab of pain assaulted her and she collapsed in the man's chest with a cry of pain, "Damn that hurt."

"I'm sorry," Ryouga said in the silence that followed, "I let my anger get the best of me and now you're hurt. That's why I'm worried about you, we have so few friends left I don't want to lose one from my own stupidity."

Baiken sighed, "I'd hit you for being an idiot but it hurts to move. I'm sorry for being so crazy."

The man grinned and put one arm over the woman, "I'm going to carefully get up and move you to you're bed now. You ready?"

The woman nodded but as she as he tried to move she let out a scream of pain and the two of them went back to their original position, "Sorry."

Ryouga sighed, "Okay, this is not good, hold on."

The man slowly slid over to the bed, making sure not to move the woman on top of him around to much. When he reached the bed he grabbed the mattress and pulled it onto the floor next to him. Once this was done he rolled onto his side and let the woman fall onto the mattress, eliciting a grunt of pain from her. That being done he grabbed a pillow and placed it under her head so that she did not have to move to get one herself.

"Just so you know, I'm not trying to treat you like a frail little girl right now," Ryouga said as he finished up, "I just want to make up for how I acted earlier. I'm going to go ahead and say goodbye right now because I probably won't be here in the morning."

"In that case I wish you a good journey," Baiken said.

Ryouga nodded, "Yeah, see you. Oh, and Baiken, just so you know, I was fighting you seriously back there. I want you to know that I think you're strong to have stood up to me that long."

The woman closed her eye, "Yeah, even if I was stupid drunk."

The man smiled and nodded, "Goodbye, I hope we meet again on better terms. Even with what happened I still consider you my friend."

He heard the woman speak as he left the room, "Friend, I like the sound of that word."

Ryouga smiled and walked out of the room and grabbed his backpack and bedroll that was still laying in its place on the ground. He looked back at the wall where he had thrown her and shook his head. That woman was something else, she was strong that was for sure, but she was not so muscular as to be manly. She was sexy in fact, something Ryouga had trouble comprehending in his current state. He was sure all he needed was some distance to get those thoughts out of his head.

At least he had been at the time he had thought that distance would get some of those thoughts out of his head. What he learned later was that no matter how much distance he put between that place and him it never got better. In fact it was getting even worse than it had been. The more he wandered the more his thoughts drifted until he starting thinking about her. It was starting to invade his personal life and because of that he had started to wonder if these thoughts would invade his normal life. Not that he had the need to talk to anyone beyond finding what he needed to survive, at least that is how it had been lately.

Still, he had to find a way to stop this line of thinking before he went insane, Ryouga was starting to believe that he was falling in love. This was entirely possible but highly improbable. For him it had always been revenge that drove him down his path, always revenge and nothing else. Now it seemed that something was conspiring against that path. The man stopped and looked around and with a shake of his head walked in a random direction. Of course he ended up stepping in a sink hole and falling flat on his face in the mud. He rolled over and lay on his back, having taken off his backpack to make it easier to get up, and as he did he noticed that the trees in the forest he entered were barely broken by the sky. Where it was broken was a brilliant blue that seemed to be trying to eat away at the shadow that the trees caused. Ryouga shook his head and curled himself into a ball, bringing his hands above his head, the momentum making it easy for him to spring back onto his feet. It was something he had not tried in a while and so he was not surprised when he stumbled forward.

He was not even surprised when he tripped again, over the same sinkhole no less, what did surprise him was the sudden hill he was falling over. His instincts kicked in and he reached to grab his pack with the bedroll strapped to it as he slid down the steep hill. To be honest, it was more of an uncontrolled roll, a few inches of controlled sliding, then more uncontrolled rolling. To make it worse he was getting beat from all directions with rock and branches, and the occasional tree trunk. It was a good thirty seconds before he came to a rest at the bottom of the hill against a huge rock that refused to give way to his body. In fact it was pressing quiet painfully against his ribs.

Ryouga's body was laying chest down in the dirt, his head was turned to the side so that his face looked at the rock that he was laying against. In his right hand was the pack and in the left hand was a fistful of branches and dirt from trying to grab a hold of whatever he could to stop himself. None of the grabbing had done him any good. He opened his left hand slowly and let the dirt fall from his hand before he pushed himself up from the ground and sat against the rock in the lotus position, bringing his bag to the left side of him and setting it down, he used his hands to frantically brush the dirt from his head before he shook it back and forth to get the leftover off. Finally he sat back against the rock and idly listened to his surroundings to get a bearing on where he was. From where he sat everything looked the same, the sounds of animals came from farther to his left, indicating that would lead him deeper into the woods. He glanced at a tree and saw the direction of moss growing on it, it was nature's personal compass.

Then he heard the sound of high velocity running water indicating a water fall, from the current elevation he was at and the amount of sound he heard from it he was sure that it was a smaller waterfall and he was at the base of it, maybe a quarter of a mile in the direction his back was now facing. Ryouga dug into his backpack and took out a canteen in order to inspect his water supply and found it running a little low. Far away from critical but he did not know the area right now so it would not hurt to find the fall and get some fresh water. Getting up slowly with a few grunts of pain, Ryouga picked up his backpack and slung it on his back before heading in the direction of the fall.

It was not a hard trek, when he was focused on something he could usually find it easily, it was when he became unfocused that he would lose his way. Indeed it was about the distance he had estimated, and it was a small one so he would find it easy to get some good water. The fall ended in a small lake where the current was diluted before it continued down a small river, almost a stream. The lake was clear and peaceful, so the man collected his water and sat down at the edge to drink the water. There was no harm in drinking here since he could keep refilling his bottle, so Ryouga made sure he had plenty of water in his body before filling the canteen one last time and getting on his way. At least he tried to get on his way, as he stood he noticed a strange presence coming from the lake, slightly familiar but he did not know from where.


	4. 4: NIAPFTD

Ranma ½

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. I own none of the characters, so do not try to get any money from me. I am truly sorry for the heavy flashback parts, I feel it is the only way to accomplish what I want from this. Ahem, yes I am a little embarrassed but this is the reason I have diligent readers, for those who do not know Baiken only have one arm and one eye. It was pointed out that I have had her using both hands so I made some slight adjustments to stop this. I hope this will allow you to enjoy this story better. On to Chapter 3, and beyond.

Chapter 4: Nostalgia is a Prescription for the Damned.

The man walked towards the source of the presence, coming around a group of rocks to find a white kimono laying on the ground. It was folded nicely so it was not just abandoned here, next to it was a sash to hold it but nothing else. Ryouga scratched the top of his head with a finger before shrugging and kneeling down to take a closer look. He found the kimono to be in a quite ragged shape, in fact it was almost close to falling apart, and it looked like it had already fallen apart in places and then been sowed together again.

Returning to his standing position, Ryouga looked around, before he heard a humming sound coming from just over a bank of rocks in front of him. It was barely audible above the din of the waterfall and it seemed to have a definite tune to it which led Ryouga to believe that it was a human humming at least. One thing must be said about the martial artist, despite all the time traveling and all the time he spent talking to people he was still no more adept at thinking beyond what was right in front of him. And so, being interested in the fact that there was someone else here and not taking into consideration the fact that they were most likely naked, Ryouga walked towards the sound. If Ryouga had bothered to inspect a little more closely in fact he would have seen the underwear laying underneath the kimono and realized that a member of the opposite sex was probably taking a bath. Then again, if he had realized this, the scene that came next would probably not have happened, which would have been a good thing for him.

The man peeked his head over the cropping of rocks and found something very unsettling. Not so much the layout, it was a little strange to have a hot spring develop itself right next to a lake, one with a waterfall for that matter. No, it was the fact that he saw a person in the steam taking a bath that was so obviously female that his eyes nearly popped out of his head. It had been so long since he had seen someone female naked that his mind just shut down, and it was just the backside of the woman.

The woman continued to run her hand across her body to get the dirt off before she sunk down in the spring, her back still facing him, and undid her pink hair. Granted, it was a strange color for someone to have, and so long. Even with his mind shut down, or maybe because it had shut down, Ryouga could not take his eyes away from the scene. The woman started to run a hand through her hair and rinse the dirt out of her long tresses. Finally Ryouga's brain rebooted and he started to stand when the woman suddenly moved too fast for him to follow and with a splash of water a sword was launched like a missile toward the man's head. The martial artist launched himself backwards desperately and fell to the ground with a hard thud, his backpack getting crushed under his weight. The only thing that went through his mind was how he would have to find new supplies because of that.

A blur landed next to him with a sword in hand and before he knew it he was looking up at a very naked and very angry woman. Of course he did not dare to move his head for fear of turning himself into Ryouga-on-a-stick. Looking up at the woman's face a sudden flash of recognition flew across his mind and without thinking he blurted out the name that came to his mind.

"Baiken!"

The sword slowly pulled away, just a few inches, enough to put him at ease, "Ryouga? Why were you watching me take a bath?" her voice held no room for slipping.

"I uh," Ryouga was having trouble finding the words because he did not know himself, "I was just getting some water and heard you over here. I came to see who it was but I could not see through the steam."

The woman took her sword away from his throat and walked over to where her clothes were. She quickly dressed and walked back over to where the man was still laying on the ground looking like a helpless turtle. Sighing, the woman helped him sit up and he took the bag off his back and set it in front of him, taking an inventory on the supplies in his bag. His grill was fine, as was all his other cooking supplies, his food was alright for the most part accept for the things that were in bags, which were now all over his pack in thousands of pieces. Ryouga hung his head with a frown, this would take forever to clean out and all of his clothes were probably filled with crumbs now.

The woman sat down next to him, "Sorry."

Ryouga shook his head and closed the bag up again, "No, it's alright, I would have reacted the same way if I were you."

Baiken placed her sword on the ground in front of her as she sat in the lotus position and stared at him. Ryouga had picked up his backpack and started rummaging through a smaller section on the backside before he came out with can of food and started digging for the grill from main part of his backpack. Taking it out he opened it, lit it off, and used a can opener to open the can before he placed it on the grill. The whole time he was doing this, Baiken stared at him in wonder, he was laying on the ground one second and the next he was cooking food. She felt her stomach, hunger had been her companion for a while now and she could use some food. Ryouga saw this and produced another can from his pack and placed it on the grill after he opened it.

"Sorry, wasn't thinking," Ryouga said apologetically.

The woman blinked her single eye in confusion, "No, I'm fine, it's nothing."

Ryouga shook his head, "It's alright, you need some food to keep healthy. I won't let your pride speak for you this time."

The two of them waited for the food to cook in silence and when it was done, Ryouga handed the woman her food and produced eating utensils from his backpack. He always carried extra ones just in case he lost one pair or they broke, in this case he would let her used them though. The two of them ate in silence also and the woman ate the small meal as if she had eaten her first meal in months. Ryouga shook his head, it probably was her first meal in a while, he was sure that she did not eat too much while on the road. Baiken set the can down next to her, raised her single hand in the air so it was vertical to the ground and bowed, which caused the martial artist to blink.

"Hey, what's that all about?"

Baiken looked up and with a mischievous grin, "Thank you teacher for this wonderful meal."

Ryouga took a second before he realized that he had just been the victim of a joke before he dumped the rest of the contents of his can down his throat and took off after the woman who had started fleeing as soon as she saw what he was planning. Of course it took a second to put his things away and so was a ways behind her. Luckily he was a faster runner than she was and quickly caught up to the woman.

"I'll teach you to mock me," Ryouga yelled in mock anger, he really could not remember when he had this much fun.

The woman looked back and waved, "You have to catch me first."

Ryouga laughed, "Just watch me."

With those words the man poured on extra speed and pulled ahead of the woman before he turned and caught her. Unfortunately he did not compensate for her momentum and the two of them crashed to the ground hard. The man took most of the impact however and Baiken recovered almost immediately, noticing her position. Ryouga groaned in pain and opened his eyes only to find himself looking into Baiken's eye, a strange color he had never seen before, red so light it was almost pink. He felt a blush come over his face and looked up to find that she had the same thing however she was grinning like a wildcat.

"Baiken," Ryouga gasped, "What are you thinking?"

The woman started tracing small circles on his chest with her finger while laying her head down on his shoulder, "Oh, nothing you'll regret."

"No!" Ryouga felt a wave of panic come over him and he pushed her off roughly before he stood suddenly, "We can't, I mean it's too sudden."

Baiken stood and looked slightly hurt by his words but shrugged, "Oh well, your loss," The woman walked back towards the direction they had come, or started.

"Wait!" Ryouga ran up to her.

The woman turned around with her mask gone suddenly, "What the hell do you want?"

Ryouga recoiled and was suddenly unsure, "I can't find my way back if you leave."

"No," Baiken said angrily, "You have your bag so get lost."

"What did I do?" The man asked in irritation, "I don't remember doing something to piss you off!"

The woman pulled her sword out and held it to his throat, "Get out of my sight you bastard!"

Ryouga narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, "Tell me what I did!"

"Don't play stupid," Baiken yelled as she brought the blade closer to his neck so the blade was against his throat, "You act like you want me then you act like you don't want me. I don't play games, now get out of here."

With a sigh, Ryouga closed his eyes, "No, that's not it, it's been so long since I've felt like this and I don't want to move too fast. I don't want this to be one sided, can you really say that you feel the same about me as I do about you or are you relying on the fact that I'll never see you again?"

"Don't even play that game," Baiken narrowed her one good eye and spoke again, "I don't give a damn what you think. Now leave!"

Ryouga shrugged, "Alright, goodbye, Baiken," it was a rather sad sounding phrase.

The woman removed her sword from his throat and watched as he turned around before she sighed in relief. That man caused something crazy to happen in her and she was not all that sure that she was fine with that. As he disappeared out of sight, Baiken realized that her eyes were getting wet for some reason. Maybe she had something in her eye, she started back to where she had been before and sat down next to a rock. Pulling a jug out of her sleeve, Baiken used her teeth to pull the cork out before she took a healthy chug of the sake that was contained in the jug. Taking the jug away and wiping her lips the woman growled and took another gulp of the alcohol. Then she kept drinking until the jug was gone and tears flowed down her cheeks and she threw the bottle into a tree at high velocity. It shattered and she put her head in her hand as she was overcome with a wave of dizziness.

Baiken raised her head and looked at her wet hand as if it were a foreign object until another tear fell from her eye. She could not believe she let herself be hurt again, she told herself it would never happen and yet it happened again against her will. Her head fell back against the rock she was leaning on as she let out a groan of despair, she was now in the sitting position. Her eyes closed and she drifted off into an alcohol induced coma.

Some small distance away, Ryouga was leaning against a tree in irritation, he was not even sure how he felt about the woman. She was a friend sure, they were by no means enemies, but did he want her like she said he did. The two of them were alike in many ways but also different. Ryouga looked up at the tree canopy as he thought, catching a few stars shining through. He had to admit that she was very attractive, strong, and appreciative of his cooking, even if in jest some part of it was true. They got along well enough, well not including what had just taken place between the two of them. What was that all about anyways? No matter what he thought of he could not see anything that would cause her to react that way. Before he tried to figure that out he turned his thoughts back to what his feelings were, he was attracted to her, he would have been a fool not to be. Despite missing an arm and an eye she was still very sexy. Of course he realized that she carried enough emotional baggage to bury an elephant, but he did also. He was the only person from Nerima left. The two of them were the only Japanese people left as far as he had seen.

That should not be the only reason for him though, he had to know if he felt strongly enough for her to love her. After a while, Ryouga ran a hand through his hair in frustration, he hated trying to figure out his feelings. Before he had always been able to express his feelings to himself freely but never to the one those feelings were aimed at. Now he found it hard to admit his feelings even to himself, this was not right, and he knew it. He had been thinking about her an awful lot lately and whenever she was close he got a warm feeling in his chest. There was also the fact that he was able to lose himself next to her and forget about all the hardship he had gone through. It certainly sounded like he was in love to him, now he just had to convince himself that it was okay to admit this to her. Oh well, you only live once they say.

Ryouga stood strait and searched for the woman's aura, and found it not far from his own position. Using all of the concentration he could muster, Ryouga started walking in the direction of the aura. He could not get lost, he would not get lost, this was too important for him to get lost. Fortunately he was able to find his way back to her without getting lost and when he did she was in a bad state. He was not sure how long he was away but it must have been a while as she had drank herself into a stupor. Rushing forward he knelt down and peeled back the eyelid of her one good eye, and when he did he found that here eyes were dilated. He could barely tell in the dim light of the moon but he could see enough to know that this could be bad. Ryouga was forced to wonder how much she had drank in order to make herself like this, then shook the thought off. It would do little good now, he had to find a way to sober the woman up before the alcohol ran through her and caused more damage. Unfortunately he only knew one way to wake someone out of a drunken coma and that he did not want to use, but then he had not much of a choice.

Picking the woman up in his arms he walked to the edge of the pool and with a sigh he submerged her head in the pool. It was a little harsh, he knew, but he would rather her be alive to yell at him about it than dead. Besides, he had to either splash his head or submerge at least half his body in water to activate his curse. Ryouga felt her start to stir in his hands then he felt a desperate movement and let the girl up from the water.

"What the hell, are you trying to kill me?" The woman screamed, her wet hair plastered to her face.

Ryouga did not answer her, but instead embraced her happily, "Stupid woman! Don't scare me like that, did you even think of how I would feel if you did that. Trying to leave me alone, damn it."

Baiken blinked for a second, "I what? What's going on Ryouga."

"You tell me," The man said as he leaned back and looked at her in the eye, "I came back and find you in an alcohol induced coma."

The woman shrugged, "What would you care? You don't even like me anyways."

Ryouga felt his hand start to move before he thought about it but luckily stopped it a centimeter from the woman's face, who apparently saw it coming and had closed her eyes. The martial artist lowered his hand and just stared at his hand before he looked up slowly once again.

"You're wrong," The man said quietly, "I do care for you. If I did not I would have left you for dead. I care for you more than anything in my life right now."

Baiken was looking down at the ground in front of her, her damp hair was already starting to dry but it still hung over her face, "No you don't, you just feel pity for my, that's all anyone has ever felt. All the guys think I don't hear them 'look at how deformed she is' or 'must be hard to look like that'. I'm not beautiful, hell, I'm missing parts! How could you find that attractive?"

Ryouga could not take it any more, with a sudden movement he embraced her tightly, "No! You stupid woman, it's the fact that in spite of all of that you are still the most beautiful woman I've ever met. I won't let you push me away because you feel sorry for yourself."

"You're only deluding yourself," Baiken said as a stream of tears started flowing down her cheeks, even though she lacked both eyes, her tear ducts worked fine, "Thank you, Ryouga, you dummy."

The man smiled and kissed the woman lightly on the cheek, removing some of the tears before he kissed her full on the mouth. It lasted a while with the woman wrapping her arm around his neck and matching his embrace. Ryouga finally leaned back and took a breath before he brought a hand up to her face and used his thumb to gently wipe her tears off of her face.

"Baiken," She looked up at him as he spoke, "I just want to know why you got angry at me."

The woman smiled and shook her head, "Shut up before you make me angry again."

"I just don't want to do it again," Ryouga said.

The woman kissed him briefly, "It doesn't even matter now, it's not important because it will never happen again anyways."

There were a few blinks from Ryouga before he shrugged, "Alright, but whatever it was I'm sorry anyways."

Baiken kissed him again, "Shut up idiot."

The woman felt her kimono slipping off of her shoulders and let out a gasp as the cold air touched her bare skin. She felt Ryouga kiss down her body, caressing her as he did so. The two of them became lost in their passion, nothing around them mattered to either of them except the person in front of them. For hours they lost themselves in each other and then drifted off to sleep in the arms of the person they loved.

In the morning Ryouga awoke and made sure that Baiken was covered, he had the feeling she would be asleep for a while between the sake and the emotion of last night. Ryouga left a spare blanket covering her and her clothes underneath that, then he took out a pen and some paper and wrote the woman a note. He was just going to get some firewood but some things could happen that might prevent him from returning and he did not want her to get the wrong idea. After he wrote the note he left a half opened can of food behind just in case and some of his water reserve, she would probably need some of that also. With a slight regret the man turned and proceeded to walk off in search of some firewood, of course he could have used his grill but that had hardly any fluid left in it and he had no extra. And so the martial artist walked off and disappeared for what would be a year.

When Baiken awoke, she smiled, until she opened her eye that is, and looked around frantically. The first thing that occurred to her was exactly what Ryouga had feared, she thought he had abandoned her. Then he noticed the blanket on top of her and a little to the right of her there was a note held in place by an opened can of food and some water. Forgetting about the clothes, Baiken wrapped the blanket around herself and made her way over to the note. When she reached it she picked it up and started to read it.

_Baiken,_

_If you're reading this then what I feared has happened, I just want to say first of all that I am so sorry. I know we'll meet again and I hope it's sooner rather than later. I love you, I realized that last night and I really hope that you feel the same… what am I saying? Of course you do, because if you didn't you would not be reading this right. Please take care of yourself, I left you some supplies so put them to good use, as for heating the food, sorry again, I was looking for firewood to do just that but like I said, if you're reading this I got lost. Just don't kill me when we meet again, because we will meet again. Until then, I love you._

_Ryouga Hibiki_

The woman could hardly read the letter with all of the tears that formed in her eyes, she was becoming quiet the crybaby lately, oh well it felt kind of good after so long. The woman folded the letter and tucked it in one of the hidden pockets inside of her kimono before she turned to the food that was left with a sigh, well she did not really mind eating it raw, it was canned after all and would not hurt her. Quickly she shoveled the food into her mouth so she would not taste it too much and quickly drank the water that was left. After she finished off the water, Baiken dressed in her usual clothes, her white and black kimono with pink trim. Before she headed out she turned towards the food and imagined Ryouga sitting there, and though it was just a ghost of his image she bowed deeply before placing her sword in it's usual place and walking off. She could swear she felt Ryouga smile from wherever he was right now.


	5. 5: I Stand Only For You

Ranma ½

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. I own none of the characters, so do not try to get any money from me. I am truly sorry for the heavy flashback parts, I feel it is the only way to accomplish what I want from this. On to Chapter 3, and beyond.

Chapter 5: I Stand Only For You.

If he had stayed any longer he knew that he would have been in trouble in more ways than one. She would have been in trouble also but that had already been discussed between the two of them. A loud crunch signified his fist hitting the sturdy tree standing in his way once again. Of course he missed her, he was not angry at himself for leaving her although he felt like he should have been, therefore he felt regret for that. He connected with a knee just inches below where his fist had connected with the tree. Sweat flew from his brow as his bangs swung in front of his face with his movements, he had been practicing for hours now. He missed his family but he was almost ready to go back and face them without fear of losing himself anymore. What Sol had said was true and looking back at the previous week he was glad that he had been away. His berserk form was a scary thing to deal with.

Spinning and connecting with a back fist to the tree and taking some bark away, he paused to wipe the sweat from his brow. That dragon-like human hybrid that had taken him over, it was as if he was in a dream, he controlled his own actions and yet he was being manipulated. It had only happened a few times but it felt as though he had almost lost himself. The man frowned and looked at the damage his practice had caused on the tree, really it was kind of childish of him to be acting like this, pouting and punching inanimate objects in the forest to relieve some of his stress. Anyways, one month was up and he could now make his way back home to accept the one thing that would allow him to control his alter-ego. He picked up his pack and wiped the sweat from his brow once again, at least he had not been letting himself go while he was away.

It would take some time to get back so he might as well take his time and enjoy the sights. He had told her he would be gone one week but he knew that it would take him at least a day to get back from here. She would probably forgive him for the fact that he was a day later than he had told her he would be. Walking through the woods he let his mind wonder back to years ago, they had all been so happy. He idly wondered where Dizzy had been at that time, from what he had heard her tell him she was actually only about three years old, she was smart though and she loved to learn. He smiled as he thought about how his house was starting to look like a library now that she had been able to calm down and actually read all of the books she had wanted. For some reason that he was unsure of, she had an insatiable need to read books of all kinds. Fiction, non-fiction, editorials, anything she could get her hands on. Ranma let an image of Dizzy with thin librarian style glasses on slip into his mind and almost lost it. For some reason she looked even more sexy than usual, then he laughed hard, he had really been away too long. Ranma decided to pack his things and start heading back the way he came, after all it was going to be a long walk.

The martial artist had been walking for a while when he finally came across someone that he did not expect to see. Looking back on it he could see how the man had ended up there but at the time he was really surprised. As usual he looked lost and as usual he blamed the martial artist for his problems when they saw one another. As much as he would have liked to play along though, neither of them really felt like wasting time in a practice fight so it ended with them walking and talking together. Of course it started in silence but eventually neither of them could hold their tongue so the quiet was broken.

"Baiken threw you out, huh?" Ranma said solemnly.

Ryouga sighed, "No, that's not quiet what happened. I think she overreacted."

"Overreacted to what?" Ranma asked with a sideways look as they walked, "Your constant road trips?"

Ryouga frowned with one of his fangs hanging out of his mouth and adjusted his bandana, "You could say that. I don't think I'll be going back."

The other man stopped and stared at him, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"She said she never wanted to see me again," The man turned back to his companion, "Not like it was my choice. We always had a rocky relationship and I can't say I'm surprised for it to end."

"Did she at least give a reason?" Ranma asked loudly.

The other man recoiled and nodded his head, "She said she did not want our child to think that I did not want to be with them. If I was gone then she could just tell him I was dead or something."

Ranma grit his teeth, "That is the stupidest thing ever. Go back and talk to her later at least. Maybe she was just drunk."

"Shut up!" Ryouga yelled suddenly as he hit Ranma with all his strength and sent the man flying into a tree trunk, "Don't you dare say something like that about her. I admit she's a lush but don't assume you can just say that about her!"

Ranma shook his head and stood shakily, "I didn't mean it in a bad way, and I was just saying that she might not have been thinking strait, you know what I mean."

The man with the pigtail walked over to Ryouga slowly and dusted himself off, that had been the hardest hit he had taken in a while and he would probably ache for a while. The idiot had not even allowed him to have a warning but that was not surprising, he did not like it when people talked bad about Dizzy either. Ranma shook his head again as it was still a little woozy and tried to get his bearings strait.

"Let's get going, we can figure out what happened later," The martial artist said, "If you don't want to talk to her, I could try to get Dizzy to talk to her."

Ryouga nodded, "I think that would be the best, if I tried to talk to her right now she would probably just get angry again."

Ranma nodded and clapped the man on the shoulder, "Alright, let's go, you can stay at my place for a while until you're on good terms again, okay?"

The other man nodded and the two of them began on their way once again, they talked about other things for a while but nothing of consequence. The trees started to gradually get thinner and thinner and eventually they came to the edge of the city. It was dark by this time and the street lamps made for a slightly spooky scene as the two men walked along the street. As they walked, Ryouga looked around at his surroundings, he had always been amazed by how much everything changed during the night. It could play tricks with a man's head if he thought about it too much, so Ryouga turned back to his companion and ran a hand through his hair.

"So what were you doing out there anyways?"

Ranma turned in surprise and shrugged, "I was practicing."

"Is that what you call turning into an uncontrollable dragon Gear?"

He stopped then and turned with a dangerous look in his eyes, "Yes. I was out there to stay away from people so that when that happened I would not hurt anyone."

"Anyone being Dizzy right," Ryouga said with a slight smirk.

The pigtailed martial artist said nothing but turned and started walking once again, towards his house. Ryouga blinked and shrugged, if the man did not want to talk about it then who was he to press the issue. It was a few miles later when Ranma turned to him once again and grabbed him by the front of his shirt with one hand, the other holding the strap of his backpack so it stayed high on his back.

"Make no mistake, Ryouga, I don't relish hurting other people, I had to spend a week out there while my limiters were created. Once I put them on I will be able to control that form without fear of hurting those I care for."

Ryouga nodded and slowly took Ranma's hand from his shirt, "I get it. So where are the limiters?"

"Sol was making them for me," Ranma said quietly, "He told me something in secret once, what he said was that he was the prototype for all Gears. That big headband he wears, that covers the mark of the Gears on his head and limits his power so he does not go into a berserk rage and kill innocents."

"I see," Ryouga looked down at Ranma's arms, "I take it you're getting bracers for each of your arms them?"

Ranma nodded, "Yes."

"Let's go get those bracers then," The other man said with a smile, "Everyone's waiting for us."

The two of them walked a couple more miles before they stopped and searched around themselves carefully. Someone was waiting in the shadows and watching the two of them as they walked. Ryouga slowly reached up for his umbrella and grabbed the hilt of it tightly while Ranma slid smoothly into a defensive fighting stance. In a blur of motion something jumped at them from the right, coming from the rooftop of a building, and landed in front of them. The two of them stared and hesitantly came out of their guarded positions as they saw the man in front of them dressed in his usual red vest and black pants, smoking a cigarette as he normally did. In one hand he held two red metal plates, each one had a hinge separating them in the middle and black leather straps with a buckle. He tossed them casually to Ranma who caught them deftly from the air and studied them intently. They looked normal, nothing like the thick metal that covered Sol's forehead. Ranma put one of the bracers on and tied it, then he secured the other one to his wrist, they were a little big.

"Thanks but the size it a little off," Ranma said.

Sol raised an eyebrow and grinned, "It'll be fine, these aren't exactly normal."

Ranma blinked and was about to asked what that meant when the bracers suddenly clamped down tight on his arms. The martial artist felt like his mind was on fire as his other self was suddenly locked out and he fell to the ground. It was more painful than anything he had ever felt before, well maybe not anything, he could think of a few things more painful, but this lasted longer than any of them. There was a sudden spike in the pain as he screamed out and grabbed his head in a futile attempt to quell the pain. It seemed like it had been hours until it ended and the fire suddenly went out in his head. His eyes hurt and he was gasping for breath, he was not even aware that Ryouga was next to him calling his name at first.

"…okay?"

Ranma took a deep breath and exhaled, then he closed his eyes and turned to his companion, "What?"

"I asked if you were okay," Ryouga said.

"Yeah, somehow," Ranma stood up again and almost collapsed before he looked back at where Sol was standing with a wry look in his eyes and a grin on his face, "What the hell was that?"

The man chuckled deeply as he took a long draw from the cigarette before he answered, "That was the limiter fighting down your Gear side, your other self. It must have been pretty strong to hurt that bad. Don't worry kid, I know how you feel, believe me. Why don't you get home and rest for a while. I'll visit in while to make sure it's working properly."

Ranma nodded, "Yeah."

Ryouga shook his head, "Let's go Ranma, your house is down a few blocks right?"

"Yeah, I'll lead you there," Ranma said, "Thanks Sol. I think."

The man shook his head and turned with a wave of his hand, "No problem, get going, she's probably worried about you."

Ranma nodded and walked the block to his house where he entered the door without hesitation and made his way towards the kitchen. He was hungry after the long trip and he had a feeling that Ryouga would also be hungry. The martial artist started to make both of them a little snack, Ryouga was in the living room unpacking his things so he did not see Ranma doing this, he only smelled the food being made and his stomach growled loudly. He walked into the kitchen and found Ranma standing over a pot cooking some food, enough for the two of them by the looks of it.

"Looks like you're just as hungry as me," Ryouga said, "that almost done?"

The other man looked back and nodded, "Yeah, almost."

Ryouga smiled, "Good, I'm starving."

"Then eat up," the pigtailed martial artist said as he took the cooking pot off the stove and emptied the food onto two plates.

Ryouga took a bite and smiled at the taste of it going down his throat, "That's good. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Ranma said as he sat down and started eating also.

Truth to tell, he wanted to just go upstairs and lay down next to the woman he had been missing for months now. However, from experience he had learned that going to bed on an empty stomach was a bad thing for someone to do. So he ate the food he had cooked and when the two of them were done he excused himself and started upstairs. He paused just long enough to look back and see that Ryouga was heading off to bed himself before he started up the stairs once again. One week he had been away, one week only and it felt like he was away for a year, why was he feeling so hesitant to proceed?

As he walked down the hallway that stood at the top of the stairs he stopped by a room where his daughter would sleep. Cracking the door open he saw the little girl in bed where her tiny chest rose against the blanket that covered her. The man smiled and walked inside the room where he leaned over the girl's bed and gave her a kiss on the forehead. The martial artist stood at the girl's side for a few seconds and studied her, wondering if she was doing okay. Children were cruel sometimes and he had witnessed his daughter come home crying because of what they said to her. Really, it made him mad to think that young kids could judge others just because their hair was two different colors and matched their eyes. Granted, red and blue was not a normal color to begin with but he had not trouble with it, and he would fight for her if anyone thought otherwise. He had to admit that her appearance was a little strange, however she was still his daughter and he loved her as much as he loved his wife. On that note he said goodnight to the little one in her room, though she was already asleep, and proceeded down the hallway further to a room at the end. It was here that he would finally end his week long journey and hopefully things would start to get a little better from here.

Opening the door he saw that she was sitting at the edge of the bed so her back was facing him. She was naked in the moonlight except for where the white sheet covered her front. He stood in the doorway, studying the curves of her body, how the silver light played off of her pale skin and accentuated the curves of her seemingly delicate body. Ranma had know that she was beautiful from the first time the two of them met, he had never imagined a scene like this in his entire life though. Taking a step forward he paused and took a deep breath, and for a second he wondered why she was awake in the first place. Then he took another step forward not taking his eyes off of the woman the whole time he walked towards her. As he stepped closer he saw that her body was shaking and her head was bent forward, supported by her hands that were covering her face. It was at this time that Ranma realized what must have happened, she probably though he had broke his promise, taking a quick glance at the clock he realized that he had indeed done just that, by five minutes. It was now midnight, and technically he had not seen her at the end of the week. She probably thought he had gotten himself into trouble once and again and gotten himself hurt.

"Sorry for being late," Ranma said quietly, causing the woman to snap her head around exposing the tears on her face to him.

"Ranma?" She hugged the white sheet against herself and ran to him, hugging him tightly as if he were a cute stuffed animal, "You said you would come back at the end of the week, I didn't know what to think when you were late."

The man looked a little sheepish at this, "Well I mean it was only five minutes, I'm alive aren't I?"

Dizzy nodded, "I know, it may be silly of me to take you so literally, but you have always kept your promises before, even when they involved time."

Ranma dropped his backpack to the floor, which he had been holding in his right hand until now, and made to embrace the woman, "Sorry about that, I would really like to make it up to you."

The woman shook her head, "No, you're back, that's all that matters."

"You are too kind," Ranma said as he raised a hand to her cheek and leaned back to look at her, "Thank you."

"For what?" Dizzy asked.

"Everything," Ranma replied with a soft smile, "For bringing back from the edge of death, for teaching me that it was okay to open myself to people again. Most of all for being here when I need you."

Dizzy smiled, "You do not need to thank me for that, because I want to be with you and those things keep you near me. You allowed me to see that not all humans want to hurt others based only on their looks, because you were the first person I could talk to without feeling you were trying to influence me either way."

The two of them embraced in the moonlight with a deep kiss, and it seemed so much sweeter after weeks of being apart. As much as he wanted it to last though, Ranma was very tired and he let his wife know that he only wanted to go to bed right now. He knew she was very understanding in these matters but he also felt she was disappointed so before he drifted off into dream land he promised to spend the whole day with her tomorrow, and Ranma Saotome always kept his promise.


	6. 6: Apologizing is the Hardest Thing

Ranma Â½ 

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. This Chapter took a while as I lost the original and had to rewrite the whole thing from memory. To make it worst, the other one was not even finished. Oh well, here we go.

Chapter 6: Apologizing is the Hardest Thing.

Waking up to the sun, shining through curtains of cheap material that was too thin to really keep out the sun in the first place, Ryouga sat up with a look of annoyance on his face. The sleep he had been in was not that deep in the first place and he was still a little tired from being on the dirty road and not being able to rest properly while he was on the road. It was irritating to be woken up but the man figured that he might as well start cleaning up so that he would not keep anyone waiting. It was more of a just in case type thing, plus it was courteous to not try to make the owners of a house evacuate due to ones own body odor. Making his way slowly up the stairs after removing himself from the bedroll and putting his things up, Ryouga careful looked for a door that would make it clear to him that it was the bathroom. Most of the doors in this house were typical Japanese sliding doors with rice paper taking up the space between six inch squares of wood. The only exception was the room that he had come to find out led to the bathroom which swung outward on even spaced hinges and opened by turning a handle. The man slowly opened the door as if he expected something to explode in his face as soon as he did so.  
When he realized that nothing had happened, Ryouga looked around at the bathroom and shrugged. It was not a particularly spectacular room, holding two baskets for clothes and a washer and a dryer for clothes. Throwing his dirty clothes in the proper hamper, having smelled the aroma of sweat coming from that one, the man continued into the room where he found a rinse bucket and an empty tub that he started warm water running in. Once he started the water, the man filled the rinse bucket with cold water and poured it over himself. There was a slight tingling as he transformed into his cursed form, a form that was given to him by curse springs long ago and one which brought him not end of trouble, and proceeded to shake the water free before he made a running leap into the bath which was now half full with warm water.  
Feeling the change back to his normal, human, form, the man sighed as he started to wash himself off. Really this was the only way he could take a bath, he supposed to was himself when he was outside the tub but that was hard to do when he had hooves instead of normal human hands. Once he finished washing he got out of the tub and used a bucket of warm water to rinse himself off once again before he dried off and exited the wash room to the laundry room with a towel around his waist. As he looked around for his clothes he found that clean clothes had been laid out for him, his own dark green pants and a yellow short sleeve shirt, and his old clothes had been but in the washing machine and started washing. For a second he wondered who had done it but then shrugged when he realized that it did not really matter anyways. Removing the towel, Ryouga dressed in the fresh clothes, adjusted a newly donned bandanna, tying it around his head to hold his unruly hair in place and allow his bangs to hang over the top of the cloth.  
When he finished he walked back down the stairs where he smelled what could only be breakfast cooking. The smell was sweet in his nose, the aroma was pleasant and made the man's stomach growl in protest at being kept from what had to be a feast. When Ryouga made it downstairs he found a girl sitting at the table, she had blue hair from what he could see and it was done in a lose pigtail with a yellow bow. From the back she looked ordinary if you discounted her hair color, but as the man took a seat next to her he found the truth a bit more startling.  
Where her hair should have been the same color all the way around, it was broken in the bangs, not a lot but just a little, by red highlights. Her eyes were an interesting color, or rather they were interesting colors. One was dark blue like Ranma's and the other was red like her mother, Dizzy's. Her face was angular, cute by most standards. It took Ryouga a second to get over the strange hair coloring and the eyes but once he did he realized that she was actually pretty normal looking.  
The girl rolled her eyes upward as she chewed on her food and paused to swallow still staring at him. It was an inquisitive stare that seemed to wait for his judgment on what he thought about how she looked. Ryouga could imagine that she got picked on quite a bit by the kids in school and he felt a little sympathetic for the girl. There was much of that he could relate to, granted it did not happen that much because of how strong he was, but those who knew he would not hurt someone who was defenseless hesitated little to pick on him. This was part of the fuel that flamed the rivalry between him and Ranma. It was childish but he was a lonely kid and it was the only way to make anyone notice him.  
"How you doing?" Ryouga said after a while when he realized that she was still staring at him.  
The girl swallowed some of the food she had been chewing and grinned, "Good, mister, are you one of dad's friends?"  
With a grin of his own the man nodded, "Yeah, you could say that."  
"Can I learn some martial arts from you too?" the girl asked, seeming to pull such a question of of nowhere.  
"Um, I'll have to talk to your dad first," Ryouga said nervously, all the moves he knew were more likely to kill the user if not done properly, "So how's the food."  
The little girl took another bite with a shrug, "Good, I really don't have anything to compare it with though. Mom always cooks for me and Dad."  
Ryouga raised an eyebrow at that, "Really, Ranma doesn't seem like the type to make her do such a thing."  
"That's not it," Dizzy said suddenly as she appeared with a plate almost overflowing with freshly cooked food and set it down in front of him, "I enjoy cooking for people. Seeing people happy makes me happy, that's why I do this."  
Ryouga nodded and took a bite, then his eyes widened and he had to suppress the need to feel like he wanted to cry, "This food is so good, Dizzy."  
The woman smiled, "Thank you."  
"Why are you crying if you think it's so good?" the little girl asked.  
Dizzy looked over at the girl with a startled expression, "Hinata!"  
Ryouga waved his hand, "That's alright, Dizzy. I'm just so happy that I get to eat such good food so I cry, as some people do when they are happy."  
"I see," The girl said with a look that communicated the fact that she really did not see what he was talking about.  
With that Ryouga continued eating his food along with the girl and within minutes both of their plates were clean. The man proceeded to walk into the kitchen and stat to wash his dish, taking the girls dishes he washed those also and but them in the dishwasher. It was after he finished that Ranma came down from the stairs, dressed only in his black pants and still using a towel to dry his hair. Ryouga looked up as the man threw the towel over his shoulders and leaned down to give Dizzy a kiss, causing the little girl to screw up her face in a look that showed that she might not totally like the scene.  
"Do you guys have to do that here?" Hinata said in a lilting voice.  
Ryouga stared down at the dishes in his hand that he was still holding in his hand and developed a thoughtful look on his face. Shaking his head he sighed and finished loading the washer. Closing it and starting it he started to collect his things.  
"You leaving?" Ranma asked.  
"Yeah," Ryouga replied.  
Dizzy gasped, "So soon? Are you going back to you house, I'll take you there if you want. I have not seen Baiken in a while."  
The man shook his head and continued packing, "No, I'll manage on my own."  
Remembering what had taken place the previous night, Ranma walked up to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Go back home, Ryouga, and take Dizzy with you."  
The martial artist was slightly surprised at the seriousness in the man's voice but he was not thrown off by it. He still believed that Baiken needed some time to herself to work some things out. How much time would that be though? A year or more? He did not have these answers, nor did he want to think about them too much. What he wanted was to go back home to the woman that had been caring and while a little argumentative, had also cared for him. She had cared for him as no other woman in his life had and he really did not want to take the chance to ruin that beyond repair. The man had to admit that he could have been doing that anyway if he did not go back and figure out exactly what was wrong with her. Maybe it would be good to go home and see her again with Dizzy.  
Sighing the man let a resigned grin cross his features, "Fine, just don't blame me if she's not in the best of moods."  
"That's not so bad," Dizzy assured the man with a light touch on his shoulder, "I'll talk to her, maybe she will have a change of heart."  
Ryouga nodded and picked up his back, starting to walk towards the door as he did so, "Alright, then what are you waiting for? Let's go."  
The woman nodded and with a thought her black sweatpants and shirt changed into a black and white dress. Ryouga shook his head at this for a second, being unable to fully come to terms with such an action even after such a long time. Ranma waved them off before he sat down next to Hinata and joined the girl in eating the meal that his partner had cooked. Pausing in the middle of his meal, he looked over at the girl next to him and gave her hair a slight mussing. The little one, for her part looked a bit annoyed at this.  
"Dad!" The girl exclaimed.  
The man chuckled, "Sorry, I just couldn't resist doing it, I missed my little girl."  
Giving her dad a hug the girl mumbled, "I missed you too dad."  
"Thanks, kiddo," Ranma said as he gave the girl a quick kiss on the forehead, "Now go get dressed, we'll meet your mother later, okay."  
The girl nodded and ran off up the stairs while Ranma just shook his head after her and continued eating his food. He had slipped up just now and let Dizzy go ahead without him, but it was something she obviously wanted to help with. Her face was practically begging him to let her go and he was not near ready to go out so he let her and Ryouga go ahead with the intention of catching up later.  
Dizzy and Ryouga were unaware of any of this of course, and were busy chatting while they walked to the man's house. Dizzy had visited a few times before today so she knew where it was from back then, however she had the most difficult time making sure Ryouga did not wonder off. When they finally did arrive, it was the woman that knocked on the door first with Ryouga standing back and just to the side so he would not be seen right away. It was his hope that this way Baiken would at least allow them to get a word in edgewise before she slammed the door in their face. Luckily his hope was good enough to make what happened go his way and get a better response then he had intended. Baiken opened the door and stood their regarding Dizzy for a second, not yet noticing he was standing there. When the pink haired woman looked up finally she blinked in surprise and looked as if she was stunned to see him there.  
"Hello, Baiken," Ryouga said nervously, "Fancy meeting you here."  
The woman sighed, "This is your house, idiot, not that you would recognize it since you're never home."  
Recognize the cue when it was given, Dizzy jumped in before anything could be said to upset the woman, "May we come in? I thought it would be nice to talk to you since I haven't seen you in so long."  
"Why would you think that?" Baiken asked with a slight surprise.  
Dizzy giggled at that, "Well with the way you act most of the time I thought you would have gotten in over your head."  
The pink haired woman let a small smile slip past her lips, "I see, you worry too much Dizzy. Oh, sorry to make you two stand here, please come inside."  
The two of them wasted no time stepping inside, and when they did they found a scene that was unexpected. The house was not dirty, as both of them had expected it to be, it was surprisingly clean. To Ryouga this only brought out just how poor the two of them actually were, it was hard to find a job for those who knew only how to fight against killing machines. Baiken had taken a job as a teach at a local school and though she was often feared by the kids, she enjoyed her job. She would never admit it, both Ryouga and Dizzy knew this for a fact. She always wanted to play the strong one because that was all she knew how to play. Loosing everyone in your family as young as she did will do that to a person. Ryouga knew the other side of her, the side she kept hidden from those she did not trust, and she tended to not trust a lot of people. Even what he knew of the other side of the woman did not prepare him for what he witnessed when he walked into the room then.  
Kitchen counters beamed with fresh cleaner, there was the smell of sweet fruit in the air, the carpet was vacuumed, and even the windows had been cleaned inside and out. The man stood in awe at the scene, unable to speak at the unexpectedness that was the clean house. Dizzy for her part was equally in awe at how neat everything was lain out, she had been over many times and at no time had it ever been as clean as it was right now. That was not to say that it was a pig sty most of the time. In fact it was clean a lot of the time but that was usually because Ryouga cleaned the house himself whenever he returned from his unintended excursions.  
"You guys seem to be awfully quiet," Baiken remarked, with a smirk that indicated that she knew exactly why they were surprised.  
With a voice that did no good part to hide his surprise, Ryouga responded, "Baiken, you cleaned the house."  
"I noticed the house got a lot more dirty when you left so I decided to clean it, especially since you were gone for so long," The woman sighed and said almost to quiet for him to hear, "I thought you were gone for good."  
The man blinked without words to respond in kind, so Dizzy responded for him, "It looks very nice, Baiken, but why so clean."  
"I just felt tired of living in such a dirty place," the woman said, "Plus, I realized that my child, our child, was not happy to be living in such filth."  
"I'm glad to see you like that," Dizzy said, although she had to admit that it was unexpected, "I guess having a child does change some people. It even changed Ranma a little."  
With that cue, a knock came at the door and Baiken excused herself to answer the summons. When she came back, she was smiling and behind her was Ranma with Hinata looking bored in tow. The man waved at them and took a seat next to Dizzy while she looked at him with a questioning look.  
Shrugging, the man responded to her silent questioning, "I decided yesterday that I would make up for being late yesterday by staying next to you as much as possible."  
"He insisted on dragging me along too," Hinata said with a pouting look on her face.  
Baiken shook her head with a wry smile on her face, she knew that the little girl had an attitude on her even from when she was younger. It seemed that that had only gotten worse as she grew up, though she knew that the girl was starting to show her caring side also from what her son had told her.  
Dizzy frowned, "Hinata, don't be rude."  
"Sorry, mommy," The girl said with the appropriate downcast expression on her face.  
"You're the only who seems to be able to do that," Ranma said with a helpless shrug.  
"Mom, who are these people?" A voice said from the entrance to the room.  
Baiken looked over at her son, "These are my friends, though I have not seen them in a while. Come over here and introduce yourself."  
The boy walked over with a calculating look on his face, appraising the guests for a bit before he bowed and returned to the standing position, "My name is Kaneda Hibiki, pleased to meet you."  
Hinata took in the appearance of the kid as the adults said there hello's and introduced themselves. He had short black hair that stood up in spiky clumps on the top of his head, his eyes seemed to take in everything and study it piece for piece, he was in shape and judging from who his parents were he most likely studied a martial art of some sort. His clothes were a little off, black shorts that went down to his knees and a loose black shirt with faded letters on it that looked like it was second hand. The girl realized then that this was probably not family with a lot of money to spend and that the boy might misinterpret her studying if she spent too much longer looking at him. Hinata took her eyes off of the boy and looked at the adults having their own conversation. She hated being with other adults because she could not relate to a word they said, as young as she was she was lost in her boredom. A thought occurred to her suddenly and she got up and went over to the boy who was standing with that calculating look over in the corner.  
"Hey, you want to go do something else?" The girl asked.  
He looked over at her from a sidelong glance and looked her up and down, "Something like martial arts perhaps?"  
The suggestion was from knowledge he seemed to have previously and reaffirm by looking at her, "Uh, if you want, we could have a sparing match."  
His face had been stern and seemingly uninterested in things around him before, even when she came up and talked to him, but when she mentioned sparing he seemed to become a totally different person. Quickly agreeing he told her to meet him in the backyard in about a half an hour to allow him to set up for training. She nodded and agreed with a shrug that showed that she would not really have any choice in the matter anyways as she was probably not going anywhere until everyone was done. The boy nodded and ran off towards the back of the house where he disappeared from her sight.  
While they were having their conversation the adults were busy trying to figure out what Ryouga had done to make Baiken mad. Dizzy had talked to the woman and she seemed to be confused about the whole night as if it did not even exist. Recently they had made progress when it was learned that the pink haired woman had drank a little too much that night. That explained the lack of memory and even the yelling at Ryouga to some extent. This done, Dizzy asked Ranma to go talk to Ryouga somewhere else while the two of them caught up on old times. Once the two of them were gone, she had to admit that it had only been a ruse so that she could talk to Baiken about some things that were worrying her.  
"Baiken, have you quit drinking since then?" Dizzy asked strait out.  
The woman shrugged, "For the most part, I just never connected the two, I doubt the poor guy even knew I was drunk."  
Cocking her head to the ceiling for a second, the blue haired girl took on a look of thinking, "So he tends to wonder off a lot, have you talked to him about it?"  
"He said it's been like this since he was a kid," Baiken said as she started looking depressed, "I want to believe that, and maybe Ranma could confirm that but I'm afraid to ask. If it's not true then that would mean... Anyways, it just gets so lonely without him around. I know I can be a bit... outgoing sometimes but I can't imagine him being gone now."  
Dizzy put a hand on the womans shoulder to reassure her, "Ask Ranma about it, I'm sure he's not doing it on purpose. He was practically lifeless when you threw him out. He looked like he had no reason to live."  
With a sigh, the one eyed woman sighed and shook her head, "I'll talk to him, but I just don't know."  
"Trust me, Baiken," Dizzy said reassuringly, "he really missed you."  
"I'll talk to him then," Baiken said as she got up, "I guess I should apologize first."  
The blue haired woman nodded in agreement to show that she approved of the course of events, "Thank you, I hope it goes okay."  
With that the woman walked off and started towards the door, intending to go to where the other two men were practicing their martial arts with one another. When they arrived they found the two of them engaged in an intense round of fighting that looked almost serious to the untrained eye. There was one thing that made it clear to the two of them that this was no real serious match. It was partly the fact that neither of them had drawn blood and it was partly the fact that not one punch from either of them got through. They were have a leisurely get together fight rather than even a sparing match. What resulted looked more like a choreographed dance than actual fight and to Baiken it was a little boring after a while. Looking over at Dizzy she found the woman entranced by the way the two seemed to flow around each others moves. It was a testimony to how different the two of them were, Dizzy never was one for a fight. She would fight to survive but she never liked hurting even the worst kind of people. Baiken was a polar opposite by comparison.  
Still she had her good points, though most would be hard pressed to think of them off the top of their head. One of the points that shone through the most was her perseverance under pressure, the other being her strong sense of honor. For what was honor except fighting for what you believe in and never giving in under a great burden. The Japanese had a sense of honor that, while working exceptionally well, was too skewed to stay around forever, which was why the ended up how they did. Even American with it's self important interest in itself had honor that seemed to be on the right track. But such an honor was young and not seen as a threat in its infantism. As such, they were all but left alone in the Gear War until they decided to join in near they end. Much like in wars past, this saved them from getting their hands too dirty but did not save them from the greed and fear that consumed them later. History tends to repeat itself and in this case there was no exception.  
And that was in the end how she had come to be here, not that she blamed the whole country for such a travesty. They could not have known that it would turn out the way it had in the end. How could they, nobody can be prescient, especially in matters like these. No, Baiken blamed one man for he led the travesty that took place in Japan without so much as a pause to reflect of the wrongness of such an act. And so it came full circle and she was now seeking revenge against the man who had left her for dead so many years back.  
But as she watched Dizzy's face and the two men mock fighting, she was not so sure that that was what she wanted anymore. She had survived this long on revenge, and now her heart was starting to break out of the stone that had encased it. All because she had met this man, but she had questions that needed answers. Not the least of which was 'why'. What had Japan been the scene of an attempted genocide? She could find no answers but she was sure she was still in pain over her homeland being destroyed. She would get her revenge, it just would have to wait until she figured out what to do with her life. The woman nodded to herself and slowly walked into the middle of the fray with little concern for the scene before her. As she got closer she drew her sword quickly to block a blow from Ranma, surprising both of the men.  
"Ryouga," She said with her one eye locked hard on his, "We need to talk. Now."  
The man raised an eyebrow and let out a slow, drawn out, "Okay."  
With those words the two of them walked into the house as the other two watched them go, "What was that about, what did you say to her Dizzy?"  
For the first time in her life, Dizzy felt something she could not explain, something very close to outrage, "How should I know?"  
"Interesting," Ranma said as he stared at her, "I think you might need to cut down on your stress. You seem a little touchy today."  
The woman, normally very composed and quiet frowned and turned away with a scowl, "Just leave me alone!"  
She started to stalk away but before she got more than three steps away she stumbled and fell to the ground clutching her stomach. Ranma ran up to her and grabbed her gently, not knowing what else to do he stared worryingly at the woman. She grabbed his arm and screamed, clamping down in a grip that was surprisingly vice-like. Ranma winced and barely managed to pull his arm away.  
"Dizzy, what's going on?" The man yelled as he stared at her helplessly.  
The woman shook her head and spoke though grit teeth, "It hurts, my stomach hurts. Ranma!"  
"Why? What's going on?" Ranma was getting hysterical but talking as her face went slack and her eyes closed, though he could still feel her breathing however that did not ease his worry.  
In a sense he was at a lose for what to do, he did not even know what had caused the woman to be in such a state. He was so worried in fact that he did not even feel the person sneak up behind him and release a dart of drugs into his bloodstream. All he saw was a blur as he stared helplessly at a blurred shadowy figure's feet before his eyes closed.

(Just to let all of you know, I had to do the formating by hand in order to get it to work. Hopefully it won't happen with the next chapter. Bleh!)


	7. 7: It's Dark in Here

Ranma 1/2

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. This chapter is more of a lead up chapter, just warning you all. I hope you enjoy it, and too the respective owners of the characters, please don't sue, I'm broke.

Chapter 7: It's Dark in Here

It was dark around him and he felt her breathing rhythmically next to him, on her side her silhouette expanding and contracting in the dim light of the moonlit room. What happened yesterday, he could hardly even believe, those two, the ones he wanted to protect, they were gone. He was sure they were alive, but he had no clues to point him in the right direction. It had happened so fast too. One minute Baiken was talking to him the next a scream and they were gone. They had tried to find them for the rest of the day but found no clues. Whoever took them, they were good.

And then there was the girl, the strange girl that just sat and stared without a sound at the area the two had been. He wondered what was going through her mind, even their son had tried to talk to her but that got them nowhere. She was closed within her own world and nobody seemed to be able to enter that world. He was sure that she was sad that her parents were gone but that should not cause her to end up like this. At least that was what he was guessing.

"Damn it," A tired voice said from beside him suddenly and the body next to him rolled over, "Get some rest you asshole."

Ryouga smirked despite himself, "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"Don't hurt you're brain," The woman said as she sat up and glared at him, "You're making it all gloomy in her and I can't think."

"I'm just worried is all," He said guardedly, "I should have known you would be too thick to relate."

Baiken blinked and stuffed a pillow in his face so hard he had to struggle to keep feathers from going into his mouth, "You absolute jerk, Ryouga! I care about Dizzy at least, it's not like I don't care. So just shut the hell up. Besides, I feel responsible, I mean if I had been paying more attention..."

"Nothing different would have happened," Ryouga said quietly, as if trying to reassure himself and her at the same time.

Baiken brought her one hand up and looked at it in the moonlight, "This hand has only known fighting Ryouga. Yet it still could not protect them, I've lost so much already."

The man made a move to embrace her and she tensed up at first, then she went limp in his arms, "You did not lose them yet. They are not dead, we have to believe that."

"I do believe," Baiken said softly, "Ranma is a good friend and though I would never have admitted it before, Dizzy has become like a sister to me."

She felt the man's body rumble with a deep laughter and the movement comforted her slightly, "That's interesting, I feel close to her also, they are both like my family.

The two of them heard a knock on the door and Ryouga slid out of bed in order to answer the door. When he opened the wooden door a little girl stood on the other side and he looked down in confusion at her. Then he became even more confused when she suddenly dove at him and took his legs out from under him. Quicker than he could react she was on top of him and pounding her little fists into his chest as tears ran down her little face.

"Give them back!" She yelled at him and for a minute Ryouga had trouble realizing what she was talking about, "Give them back!" She yelled again.

The punches did not hurt but they were annoying so he grabbed her in a gentle but tight hug, "I did not take your parents, I don't know where they went, but rest assure that they will pay when I find them."

Hinata, overwhelmed by her emotions stopped trying to hit the man and settled for crying in his chest, leaving wet spots on his night shirt. Ryouga continued to embrace the girl but slowly rose and walked over to the bed and sat her on his leg. Using his night shirt he wiped the tears from her eyes as they reached their terminus.

"You need to go to bed," Ryouga said softly, "Tomorrow we will look for them again. Okay."

Sniffing, Hinata let a small nod pass, "Okay."

"That's a good girl," The man said, "Now be on your way."

He watched the girl walk out of the room still sniffing and sighed and hung his head in his hands as the door closed. Baiken climbed across the bed and embraced him with her one good arm and kissed him gently on the cheek. Ryouga did not look up but he did drop his hands from his face.

"Don't worry about it honey," Baiken said softly, "We'll find them."

The man balled his hands into fist and she could feel a deep guttural sound start to emanate from deep in his throat. Many times she had wondered about his fangs and what purpose they served, but now she could see by the way he tensed up where they sprang from. He was a man of mixed curses and mixed blood that had to fight his inner demons every day. She was not sure that he even knew what he was himself but she was sure that for him to react like this he was agitated over something.

He let out a powerful yell, loud and sudden and it was gone suddenly, his face tight and his teeth grit in what looked like some kind of pain, his green eyes wide, "It hurts Baiken..."

The woman sighed and drew herself into the sitting position next to him, brushing her long pink hair out of her face, "I know it does baby, I'm sorry."

His face went back to normal and he gulped and shook his head, "You have nothing to be sorry about. It has nothing to do with you, Baiken, God I don't want to lose you. Please say you won't leave me."

The quiet of the room was broken with a slap to the back of the man's head, "Just stop it, you're being dumb, though I should expect that from you."

"At least I'm not a super tomboy," Ryouga said in a half hearted insult.

The woman stuck her tongue out at him, "At least I'm not a hard headed pig."

With a mock growl the man jumped from his place and landed on top of the woman with a good impression of a lion pouncing on it prey. The two rolled around the bed for just a bit before the rolled onto the floor trading blows with pillows and other soft objects they could find nearby. Even the bedding was not safe as it got pulled onto the floor and before long the two were laying still on top of one another and gasping for air. Two warriors easily defeated by a pillow fight, Ryouga could not help but let out a chuckle.

"You're a super-tomboy, Baiken," The man said breathlessly as he lay underneath the woman and gave her a kiss, "But I wouldn't have you any other way."

The woman found herself giggling, something she would never have done before, "You're my hard headed pig-man, too," She responded as she ran her hand through her disheveled hair to get it out of her eyes and kissed the man back.

The rest of the night could be left to ones imagination, this is not that kind of a story. Let me just say that two people desperately in love with one another can, at times, be very loud. Especially when they let months of pent of emotional passion loose on one another. When they woke in the morning the two of them were still on the floor in each others embrace. Ryouga felt sticky with dried sweat and he slowly, gently, removed himself from the woman's embrace and grabbed a towel. Topless and in only boxers he headed for the bathroom and turned the metal knob on the shower, the water coming out in a hiss and tapping on the walls of the moderate sized stall. The man ran a hand through his hair feeling the oil on his hands before he scowled and hung his towel.

As he entered the shower he felt the heat and water against his skin and he sighed with the feeling of his muscles relaxing. Reaching for the soap he ran it across his body until he built of a thick lather, then he washed his hair and just when he was about to rinse off he felt a soft yet strong hand on his back. Turning he found Baiken standing naked in the shower with him and he silently raised one quizzical eyebrow. The woman said nothing but embraced him and looked into his eyes as she used her hand to soap up his back. The man smiled and turned so the woman could see what she was doing better.

As she finished his back up and he rinsed the soap off Ryouga took the soap and started to return the favor the she had paid to him, "It's such a shame that you insist on renouncing your womanhood."

The woman looked down as he said this and her wet hair hung limply around her face, "When you're disfigured like I am, it's hard to consider yourself anything but a vessel for your own revenge."

"Oh?" Ryouga said as he finished washing her back and moved to the front of her body, "How's that?"

Baiken clenched her small fist and he could hear the tenseness in her voice, "That man... he took everything from me, everything except my life, even my beauty."

Ryouga stopped and turned her around towards him, bend down to see if he could catch a glimpse of the woman's face, "Beauty, I still see it, you have flaws that can not be overlooked by most people. You know what that means?"

The woman shook he head slowly, "I know what it means to most people. It doesn't bother you?"

"No, you overcame the limitations of those wounds," Ryouga started to continue washing the woman's body and stopped at the crippled arm, ending where the woman's elbow would be in a stump. She saw him stop and for a second she was afraid he was going to use the same look of disgust everyone else before had. Instead he sighed and started to wash around it.

"Even with your arm like this you survived and you had to have done a remarkable job keeping it dressed," The man continued to her other arm, "It seems to have healed pretty cleanly."

The next words from the woman were a whisper, "Sometimes it feels like my arms still there, like it's just asleep. It scares me, that's why a wear the prosthetic arm most of the time."

"I was wondering how you hid so much up that sleeve of yours," Ryouga commented with a rueful smile remembering the first time he had found himself wrapped in a claw ended chain, "You've also adapted remarkably well to you missing eye."

"I've had practice," Was the simple reply.

"Bet you have," Ryouga replied equally as simple, "Are you through being depressed so we can get out of the shower and eat something."

With a nod the woman turned the know controlling the flow of water to the show off, "Thank you Ryouga."

"That was the least I could do for you," The man said as he dried off and got dressed, "Helping the person you love is natural."

Baiken grinned and shook hear head in order to try and top crying, though they were not the tears of a sad person. The woman dried herself off and threw on a bathrobe, leaving her hair hanging long and loose instead of putting it in the normal high ponytail. Such a hair style was really unneeded when there was no fighting going on.

The two of them walked downstairs and after a meal with everyone in the house in a slightly better mood than yesterday. It was not perfect and in truth everyone was just trying to steel themselves for the upcoming problems. The first was that they would have to find someone to take care of the children, but Baiken quickly solved that with a phone call. Ryouga was unsure who she called, though he trusted her when she said it was all taken care of.

After that the two of them dressed in their normal battle clothes, for that was what was expect from their searching. Clues did not normally fall out of nowhere and they had a feeling that finding the proper clues would get them in some scrapes. As they were about the leave the gate, a powerful wind blew and Ryouga looked up to see a giant airship lowering itself, then a silhouette of a man fell to the ground and landed right in front of them with what seemed to be little effort. He wore a black coat and black pants with a leather belts and over sized buckles, and no shirt. He held a large-brimmed hat with one hand and had the other hand on the hilt of a sword that was still in its sheath. His long blond hair was tied in a ponytail and he wore dark glassed to cover his eyes.

Ryouga sighed and rolled his eyes, he had always considered Johnny a joke when it came to fighting but he knew that the cause was noble enough, "Hey, I guess your the guy Baiken called."

The man grinned and lifted his head which had been at a downward angle before to look at Ryouga, "That's right. I guess you two need to go away for a while and I'm the babysitter. Must be some important kids."

Baiken nodded, "You could say that, Dizzy and Ranma were kidnapped and Hinata, their daughter, needs some looking after while we search for them. Kaneda is my son and he needs some looking after himself."

"Alright, I rarely take males on my ship but since your a friend I'll allow it," Johnny said, "Where are they?"

Ryouga threw a thumb over his shoulder, "In the house."

"Alright, you two can go ahead, I'll handle it from here."

The two nodded and continued walking out of the front gate as Johnny went about the business of collecting the kids. There was some hesitance in their walk initially, but eventually they managed to focus on their main mission which was to find Ranma and Dizzy and get them back safely. They managed to find their first clue a little past the gate when they met a group of people gathered around when looked to be a good sized stain of blood on the ground and next to it was a basketball sized crater. From what they could figure out it was from the night before, someone heard the sounds of a scuffle and saw a man get knocked out by a group of men, one female was being carried of the shoulder, right before a car pulled up and they all jumped in. A patch was left as the car sped away.

Ryouga knelt down on the street where the patch of rubber was left and felt the ground, it was old but they were headed in this direction at least until the next block which was a ways away. Baiken and Ryouga followed the road and when they got to the turn they round another patch and some paint from where a car had hit the side. Ryouga could not help the smile that crossed his face, at least they were not making it easing for them to get the job done. Eventually they lost the trail for a little while before they would find some clue to indicate the right direction once again. It went on like this for a while until the arrived finally at a nondescript office building that had tinted windows up all of its One-hundred floors. Baiken let out a low whistle at the size and Ryouga could do nothing but nod.

"I feel kind of bad show admiration for the bad guys," Ryouga said as he continued to look up in awe, "I they must be was rich company."

Baiken nodded, "I agree, it is a big building though."

The man beside her looked at the solid looking door finally and shook his head, "This thing would stand up to a missile," He said as he walked up to the door.

"Sow how are we going to get through?" Baiken asked.

Holding up a finger, Ryouga pointed at the door and touched it ever so gently, "With a Breaking Point touch."

With those words the whole door crumbled into pieces and Baiken was left wordless as she stared incredulously at the man. Ryouga looked back at her with a shrug and walked inside. After she recovered from her shock, Baiken followed the man through the door into the lobby. As they entered they found the lobby clear of anyone, strange considering that Ranma had just blown the door in. Looking around the two decided to look at the computer behind the guards desk. There they found the reason for the lack of personnel. Every camera showed a picture of guards laying on the floor, though it was hard to tell from the monitors whether it they were dead or just unconscious. Ryouga sighed and sat down at the chair and tapped a few buttons, though he never had any formal training, traveling allowed him to learn some skills that he would probably not have otherwise. One of those were basic hacking skills.

After a few tries he was able to guess the password through the use of a backdoor within the system. Searching through some documents turned up some information that made Ryouga's blood run cold. When she saw the look on his face, Baiken came over to see what was causing it and her face was blank at the information on the screen. There was a secret project that used a kind of frequencies and some smaller, less powerful gears, to create a device that would rid a someone of Gear traits. What this meant to a full gear was instant death, to a half Gear it was intense pain and after too much use even they died eventually. That was the only way to explain what had happened to Dizzy and Ranma. At least the two of them were in the right place.

It was then that the whole building shook with an explosion from below the two of them. Baiken and Ryouga looked at one another at the same time with the same serious expression and nodded. Heading towards the elevator doors, Ryouga grunted and used a powerful kick to knock the door out of its track and plummeting towards the ground below. It was a good minute or so before they heard the door stop.

"A little far for just a basement floor," Baiken commented with a bemused grin.

Ryouga nodded, "What do you say we see just how far it would be."

Baiken put her hand on the hilt of her sword and jumped into the shaft without a word in response. Ryouga shrugged and jumped a second after her, thanking whoever was watching over him that he had remembered to wear his heavy duty boots today. Before too long the ground became visible below and Ryouga saw Baiken draw her sword and jab it into the wall of the elevator shaft. He let her slow past him and grabbed a hold of the cable in the center by wrapping his leather belt tightly around it and focusing some energy into it to reinforce it. He crashed through the elevator car at the bottom with a horrible sound and throwing dust around everywhere. Slowly he stood from the wreckage and sighed as he found a few guards at the bottom with automatic machine guns aimed directly at him. Grinning he put his arms above his head just as Baiken fell into them. Without hesitation he tossed her at the men at high speed and she hit the first man like an arrow, using his body to slow her momentum as she drove the blade of her sword through him.

The other two guards were so surprised they let their guard down and opened a hole up for Ryouga to dash forward and clothesline them. Baiken removed her sword from the body and wiped the blood from it with her clothes. Sheathing the weapon she walked up to Ryouga with a frown.

"I'm going to have to sharpen this sword when I'm done," The woman said as she used her hand to adjust her hair out of her eyes.

The man adjust his headband, "Sorry, I did not plan it like this."

"Not your fault," she responded, "Let's keep moving.

Ryouga nodded and the two of them ran off down the metal corridor, it was a strait line so even Ryouga could not get lost. Eventually they came to a huge metal door, and if the front door looked like it could take a missile blast, this one could repel a whole army. Baiken looked to Ryouga and he shook his head helplessly, the breaking point did have its limits and the guards would come for them by the time they were able to get through.

"So we can't go any further?"

Ryouga looked down at the ground and shook his head, "I don't see how."

There was a crunching sound from behind them as someone walked up behind them and the two of them turned, expecting a fight. Instead they found Ky Kiske, his blond hair slightly unruly, hovering in front of his blue eyes. His face was serious and he held his sword in his hand, the blade arching with electricity. His uniform, white with blue trim, was without a spot of dirt and yet he was walking from the area that the other two had just come from. He held up a hand to indicate he had no intention of fighting them.

"I heard what happened from Johnny," The man said as he lowered his blade, "Others will be hear later. I jut arrived first, how are you two doing?"

Ryouga folded his arms over his chest and regarded the man coolly, "I see, we're find except for this door being in the way."

"Looks quiet impassible," The man responded with just a hint of his French accent.

"You noticed as well," Baiken responded as she sheathed her sword.

Ky walked up to the door and took a look at it, "Its impossible to open it with a blast. However it's electric."

The man stood back, took a breath and the other two had just enough time to get away from the door before he swung his sword and let an electric bolt loose. The whole door arched with the energy and the code pad to the left of the huge door spark and exploded. Then the door slowly slid open, show it's thickness to be about two feet. After reaching about four feet wide it shut again and slowly started to opened until it got to the same four feet and slammed closed. The three looked at one another, nodded as one and took a run for it just as the door started to open again. Ky took the low road with a slide, Ryouga leapt grabbed Baiken and the two of them dove above the man and landed in a roll just as the door closed once again.

Everyone collected themselves on the other side and proceeded down the dimly lit corridor, which after much inspection turned out to be empty. Ryouga was beginning to think that this place was abandoned.

Ky was the one to voice the opinion, "If it was not for those guards I would think there was not a single person here."

"I agree," Baiken said, "I wonder what's going on."

With a shrug, Ryouga turned to one of the doors and started to inspect it, "Not sure about that. What I do know is that none of these rooms are being used right now. This place is older than what has happened recently."

Just as he said that there was a shudder throughout the building and Ryouga looked up to see the ceiling start to collapse. Nobody really needed a cue to run as they also saw the ceiling collapse. The walls may have been metal but the floors were still cement they it crumbled as fell as the three of them ran as fast as they could to get away from the heavy pieces falling from above. What made it even worse was the bigger chunks making a hole in the path below their feet. Running fast became jumping fast which ended when the three burst through a door at the end of the path, falling in the metal room from exhaustion. For some reason this room even had metal floors. Baiken gasped as she finally caught her breath enough to speak actual words.

"What the hell is going on here?" She yelled as she continued to pant.

Ryouga shook his head and thumped his fists on the ground where he sat against the wall, "I would like to know to."

"I feel like this was probably a trap," Ky said, "I have to admit I to am feeling a little trepidation about this mission, it is as if we have been led to this room on purpose."

At that the other two looked around as saw that the room they were in was different than the rest of the place. Where their were cobwebs and dust everywhere else, this room was clean. The rest of the building had been dimly lit but here it was bright enough to make out every detail. In the corner of the room there was a speaker and with a bit of feedback there came a rather distorted voice from the speaker box.

"I like when people are at least smart enough to realize their surroundings," the voice said, "It's too bad you won't be alive long enough to do anything about it."

Ryouga grit his teeth and stood, "Did you take Ranma and Dizzy?"

"If I did, it would make very little difference," The voice answered.

"What do you mean, where are they?" Ky said as he joined Ryouga.

There was another short burst of feedback before the voice came back, "They are preoccupied by their own struggles. They are in this building if that's what you mean. Now that I answered your question you really should focus on surviving."

With that the room lost its side walls and in its place stood a line of guards and turrets all with weapons pointed at them. Baiken cursed and drew her sword, there was little chance that they would survive, but she would still fight damn it. Ky drew his sword, charging it with electric energy as he did so, the blade glowing blue and white. Ryouga summoned his battle aura, glowing a deep shade of green, and let out a growl as he stared each of the attackers down. Then they all charged.


	8. 8: It's Dark in Here Pt 2

Ranma 1/2

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. More or less the continuation of the previous chapter. I decided to make it two part as it made more sense to me. This will be the darker chapter of the two probably so be prepared. Oh, and some action and comedy will happen, but mostly dark… So, um, yeah, have fun. Or something.

Chapter 8: It's Dark in Here, Pt. 2

Waking up was hard, it had always been hard before but for some reason it was unusually so now. There was also the pain, his whole body hurt for some odd reason. When he tried to open his eyes they felt like they were the weight of his whole body. His vision was tinted a little red, maybe from blood or maybe from the extreme heat of the place. No, that just made him sweat profusely, his vision was red from his own blood running into his face. Ranma really hated cliché's like this. With a grunt he finally managed to open his eyes and take a look around at the area he was being held. The horse tranquilizers did little to help him move though. He managed a smile, tasting the blood on his lips as he did, they may have slowed the wild horse but he was far from tamed.

The area around him was mostly rock, so he was underground somewhere. He was restrained vertically on a rack, next to others who looked just as unfortunate as him. The rack hung from a chain and swung slowly in the air with a slight breeze from somewhere. Below him was a pit filled with what appeared to be lava, Ranma rolled his eyes and wondered if the people would ever come up with something original. Guards that looked the same, cliché meetings in secret, being suspended over a pit of lava. All that was left was to explain the plan slowly while he made a plan to escape.

"I bet you're wondering why I'm doing this," A voice from the shadows said.

Ranma sighed, again with the cliché's, how serious did these people expect him to take them, "Not really but go ahead and explain."

The voice, obviously a man, chuckled, "I know you may be tired of the cliché's, but I assure you that they will end soon. Along with your life if you're girlfriend does not cooperate."

This brought Ranma up short from making another sarcastic remark and made him yell in anger, "What did you do to Dizzy."

"Nothing at all, she is fine," The man said, "In fact I'll let you see her so you believe me."

The man snapped his fingers and Dizzy was brought forward out of the shadows. She looked fine, though her hands were bound by some technological looking handcuffs. The man sighed in relief but then anger took him and he growled at the man.

"Let her go," Ranma said as he struggled vainly to escape.

"How about no," The man said crisply, "You see, she is very important, she is a weapon that I will use to get my revenge on the world for... What are you doing?"

Ranma grinned as he stopped mocking the man, "Nothing, just continue telling me your plan so I can find a way to escape. You evil guys are so predictable these days."

That was a grimace from the man as he clenched his fist and yelled, "You think this is a game? I'll oblige you then and get on with it. Now Dizzy, work with us and nobody will get hurt."

The girl lifted her head from its downcast position slowly and Ranma could see the sadness in her eyes, and right there he wanted to end these peoples lives. She shook her head but it was clear that she was close to accepting their suggestion. Ranma shook his head, they must have forced her to watch the beatings he had taken where he was held, still he would not let her give up easily. Making up his mind Ranma decided to help her fight against what they were telling her.

"Don't do it Dizzy!" The man yelled from his position, "If you give in more people will get hurt, I know you don't want that."

The man in shadows looked over at the girl and grit his teeth, "That fool doesn't know what he's talking about. If you deny us all of these people will die," The man pointed at the others hanging beside Ranma, "You have four tries and I know you don't want to deny us after that, unless you want your boyfriend to die. Now I'll ask again, will you join us."

Dizzy looked up at Ranma and he shook his head, "Don't."

The girl looked down, "No."

With a sigh the man shook his head in disappointment, "I see you think we're bluffing. Do it."

The words were spoken and with them the first platform lowered rapidly, the man on it screamed as he touched the hot magma below him. Ranma could see Dizzy flinch at the sound of the man screaming, and he felt for the girl as he watched her. It must be hard on her to hear those screams and know that she was the cause, but still she could not give in to these people. They asked her again and again she shook her head until only Ranma was left, and he could see her about to break down. Her body was trembling and she looked weak, then her eyes met his and slowly he shook his head no, and with that he was lowered towards the pit. His lowering was a lot slower that the others had been and a man stood behind the girl holding her head to make her look as he was slowly lowered into the lava. As his feet touch he saw her collapse to the floor and at that moment he felt the symbol on his forehead, the one he had not felt burn for so long, start to glow. The pain of the lava stopped and defiantly he looked at towards the shackles that held his arm. Experimentally he moved his arm against one and found it giving a little, so they did not know he was part gear himself apparently. He grinned up at the girl as she watched him and with a bit of struggle he forced words out of his mouth before he head went under.

"I said I'd protect you Dizzy!" Ranma yelled as he went under, "Don't give up!"

The man in shadows smiled and shook his head, "Now you see what you've done? You killed the one you loved."

Dizzy finally collapsed onto her hands and knees and started crying, her tears fell to the ground and the man laughed at her. He would have felt sorry but she had been given the choice, now she had to live with the death she had caused herself. Oh well, it would only make it easier to tame her later when they put her through the brainwashing. Really he hated to do it but she would not join them of her own free will so he would have to force her. Just as he was about to lean down and pick the girl up she lifted her head and let out a scream that rung throughout the whole cavern. The ferociousness of the scream caught the man off guard and he backed up just a little as she continued to scream and the cuffs around her arm began to spark. Then, slowly, her black and white wings started to form from her back, then her tail, then the cuffs sparked one last time before they exploded and the black wing formed into the entity known as Necro before flowing around her body.

The man backed up a little more and the guards in the room lifted their weapons towards the girl, firing but doing little to her. When the wings were done forming around her, the girl turned towards them and she seemed to change her personality totally. Grinning the girl pointed her finger at the guards and one of them and a spear of ice impaled him through the chest much to his surprise. The other guard screamed and unloaded his weapon at her only to sink into the ground through a portal from nowhere. Seconds later he fell from the sky and as he fell a ball of energy hit him from the sky from a giant black dragon head that had formed out of the black wing of the girl. All that was left now was the man in shadows, who had dropped the facade now and was made out to be a wiry looking man with long black hair slicked back and hanging to the middle of his back. His face was narrow and pale and he looked quiet weak in terms of physical strength. He screamed as the woman walked towards him slowly with a grin on her face as she pulled her hand back, her fingernails elongating in thin claws as she continued towards the man. As the Necro controlled girl was about the strike there was a sudden sound from the pit of lava and the two looked back to she a column of magma rise from the pit.

In the middle of the lava was a red tinted dragon man floating in the air in the middle of the geyser of molten rock. The man spread his wings and as he did the geyser fell into the pit and the man glided slowly to the edge of the pit and walked towards where Dizzy was standing over the man. The man tried to take the opportunity to run away but the dragon man caught him as he did so and lifted him into the air by his throat. The Gear form of Ranma Saotome looked into the eyes of the man as he lifted him into the air and they narrowed as he saw the intent of the man. It could be read easily on his face, he wanted to survive but there was something behind that, deceit and lies. Ranma squeezed the man's neck tighter and the man shook his head as the dragon Gear squeezed and then there was a sickening pop as a windpipe collapsed and the man lost the ability to breath. Then the Gear dropped the man to the ground and with a disgusted snort kicked the man off the edge of the pit.

The dragon Gear turned to Dizzy and the woman stared back at him for a second before she charged at him. The reptilian Gear blocked the physical attack and countered with an attack of its own. Somewhere in the back of the dragon's mind, Ranma woke from his slumber that allowed his beast to take over and saw what had happened. Dizzy was still controlled by Necro and his dragon had been fighting to save itself when he had attacked it. Dizzy charged again and this time Ranma was knocked across the cavern, over the pit and into the wall opposite where he was standing. The man extracted himself from the wall, blocked the next attack, a pair of axe like blades formed by the wings and spun like a figure skater, his wings forming their own blades. Really he did not want to hurt her but he saw no other way but to render her unconscious right now. As the girl flew through the air Ranma let one of his dragon energy attacks loose.

Dizzy recovered in the air and blocked the attack, sending a spear of ice up from the ground that was barely dodged by Ranma. The dragon charged forward but was pushed back by a triple lance of energy arrows right into a portal. Stunned and unable to do anything he fell into it and was caught by the same dragonhead energy attack she had released earlier. Being in his Gear form however he was somewhat stronger than he would normally be and he was only stunned slightly by the attack. Summoning his energy the dragon man dashed forward with a ball of energy around his fist and hit the woman in the stomach with an upward motion, following her into the air he twirled with his wings outstretched in the same blade weapon he had used earlier and this was followed by a downward mid-air axe kick that forced her into the ground with enough force to leave a crater. Ranma dropped to the ground hoping that that was all he had to do, he felt pain every time he hit her even though he knew in the back of his mind that she would remember none of it, he knew that he would. Unfortunately she rose once again, though a little out of it. Ranma took the moment of her being off guard to rush forward and grab her. The woman growled and with a flurry of motion she launched him into the air once again. Ranma decided to change out of his Gear form in mid-air and he landed hard on the ground and slid across the ground, rising in time to see Dizzy landing near him once again. Coughing a little Ranma got into a defensive stance, this next try was a long shot but he was out of ideas. He did not want to hurt her anymore.

"Dizzy, stop!" The man yelled, "We don't need to fight, wake up. It's over!"

The girl paused for a second but then charged forward and hit the man with a punch in the stomach. Ranma felt his ribs collapse under the hit and blood flowed out of the corner of his mouth. Still he did not relent, wrapping his arms around the girl and putting his mouth next to her ear.

"Stop this," The man said desperately, "Please, you need to stop, I love you, Dizzy."

With those words the girl stopped attack him and her wings, which had been just about to slam down on him once again with a hammer-like weapon, drew back into their original form and he felt her fist come out of his chest. He hit the ground on his side and lay there panting, it hurt to breath and he probably had a punctured lung, but it was worth it. He heard a gasp and looked up to see Dizzy looking at him in horror, and he realized that she knew what had happened.

"God Ranma, I'm sorry," The woman said, "I'm so sorry, you probably hate me for what I've done."

The man grit his teeth and tried to speak, "Dizzy, no I-" Then violently a cough was ripped from his throat and with it came blood.

Ranma clenched his chest and his knuckles went white as he continued to cough up blood. His hands unclenched and he clawed at the ground to try and stand but every movement hurt too bad. He felt Dizzy wrap her arms around him and he tensed but accepted the embrace. Tears fell from her eyes on top of his head and he tried to reach up but pain assailed him even then.

"Don't move, idiot," Dizzy said as she closed her eyes and hugged him even more, "You don't move, please, if it hurts just stay still!"

"Dizzy," Ranma trailed off as he saw her face, is eyes felt heavy, he was so sleepy, "I love you."

"Idiot," Dizzy said, "Please live."

For all of her pleading though, Ranma closed his eyes despite all of her protesting. The girl hugged the man even tighter and her body began to shake with her sobbing. Shaking her head she still protested and slowly she began to glow with whiteness. It was not like an aura of power, more like a calming glow. The door burst open to the cavern then and there stood the team that had come to rescue them. Behind them the room they had been in was filled with knocked out guards and destroyed guns. They began to walk forward but stopped short as they saw Dizzy, the glow around her growing to fill most of the cavern by then. Then the white wing on her back unfolded to its full length and became its true form, the angelic create known as Undine. She embraced both the girl and the man and the white glow as transferred between the two of them. All present stood in awe at the sight.

As the glow grew to engulf the cavern, Ranma's wounds began to heal themselves. His marks, the ones that made it apparent that he was a gear began to glow orange as the wounds closed up. Then the two of them started to rise into the air and the saturating white energy closed in and formed a containing column around the two people. Ranma suddenly flared with energy and his Gear form came out, its wounds healing even faster than they had been. After what seemed to be the longest time the energy stopped flowing and the Gear Ranma became human once again. The two slowly floated to the floor, the woman still embracing the man tightly as they settled back into their original position with Ranma half sitting in the young woman's slender arms.

Baiken was the first to run up to the two, followed by Ryouga and Ky, "What the hell was that, Dizzy?"

The girl looked up for a second but said nothing and returned her gaze to the man in her arms. Baiken blinked her eye and sighed, pulling out a her pipe and placing it in her mouth, though not lighting it. Ryouga scratched his head and shrugged at Dizzy's attitude, it was as if she was not really aware that they were there. Ky ran a hand through his hair and sighed at the sight of the two together, it was obvious that Ranma was going to be alright now though he wondered just what the hell had happened.

"There's a lot about that one that we have yet to find out," Said a man from behind them, and the three turned to see Sol standing with his sword in its normal position over his shoulder, "I would suggest letting them be for a while after you get them out of here. She doesn't understand what happened any more than you. It's going to take her a while to come to terms with what happened."

Ky sighed, "Great, so she will be like this for a while then."

"Let's get to work then," Ryouga said as he approached Ranma only to be greeted by a wall of ice rising in front of him.

The man looked at Dizzy in surprise before he backed off and the wall disintegrated. Sol shook his head in disbelief at the man as he walked forward. They should know that it would not be that easy, she was very protective of him right now. Taking the cigarette that he had been smoking out of his mouth the man bent down and put it out on the floor before standing again.

"Dizzy," Sol said neutrally, "We understand you want to protect him right now but we have to get you home. He needs rest in a warm place where he can be looked after."

She shook her head but said nothing, Sol gave an irritated click of his tongue and spoke again, "You stubborn girl, no harm will come to that man. I promise you, now you two get your asses out of her before I force you out."

Dizzy looked up at him defiantly and shook her head no, Ryouga chuckled, "It's like a daughter talking back to her father."

"Hurk," Sol almost swallowed his cigarette as his eyes went wide at that then he turned and growled, "Shut up you bastard!"

Baiken laughed out loud, "Sol as a father, I feel sorry for that kid."

"Yes," Ky agreed as he chuckled himself, "I would have to voice my affirmation for that as well."

"All of you just shut the hell up," Sol yelled, "Damn girl, if you would just do as I say this would never have happened!"

Dizzy stuck her tongue out at the man.

"Maybe you should put her in the corner," Ryouga hooted, "That's where parents put naughty children."

Sol slugged Ryouga in the face with a growl and continued what he was doing, "Just listen to what I have to say, girl!"

Rubbing his face, Ryouga managed to shake his head, "You really have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

The woman shook her head at their antics and finally Ranma opened his eyes and chuckled, "Alright, Dizzy, that's enough. Do as they say, I'll be fine."

With a sigh, Dizzy nodded silently, "Alright, Ranma."

( )

They were back at home when he woke again, it was dark out and he felt her breath rise and fall against him. It had been a long past few days but he had a feeling that it was not over quiet yet. Looking over at the girl next to him he felt a bit of regret flow through him at what had happened. He knew she remembered little of it herself, except for him laying in front of her. At some point he admitted to himself that he was not even sure what had happened after he had lost consciousness. All he knew was that he woke fully healed with Dizzy still embracing him protectively. She had said nothing to him after that because he had passed out shortly after.

Now he was laying in bed with Dizzy asleep, looking so peaceful in her sleep that he did not want to wake her up. She was so close to, and warm, and her scent was sweet in his nose. There was no perfume, no soap, just her, the girl he had saved so many years earlier. Ranma moved close to her and wrapped his hands around her waist. Drawing her close into his chest he kissed her deeply and felt her embrace him back as she woke up.

"Ranma," She said, her words muffled slightly as he moved to kiss her again and broke the action off, "Wait a second."

The man blinked and looked at her in the eyes, those captivatingly red eyes, "What is it?"

Dizzy sighed as if she really did not want to say the next words, "Do you… Do you still love me after what I did?"

The man gave a small laugh, "You mean after you wiped the floor with me, yeah."

She gave him a hurt look and turned away, "Never mind."

Ranma sighed and shook his head, "Dizzy it's nothing to worry yourself over. I'm still here, aren't I. My wounds are healed so no harm no foul."

She did not turn back to him but instead she seemed to move further away from him, or maybe that was his imagination. He put a hand on her shoulder and he could feel her tense up.

"Dizzy," Ranma said quietly, "Hey, are you listening to me. I said I'm fine. Hey, stop ignoring me."

The woman sat up suddenly and before he could react, he felt a stinging on the side of his face as her hand lashed out. Ranma sat there in stunned silence for a while as he stared at the tears running down the woman's face. Her face was twisted in a cross of anger, despair, and self-pity. Ranma reached up to touch the area where he had just been slapped before he dropped his hand and looked at it.

"You died, Ranma!" The woman said as her eyes shut tightly to fight the tears but they kept coming, "You died again, how many times do you plan on doing that before it's one too many. Will it be next time, is that when I'll lose you? Should I live in fear every day of you not coming back to me?"

The man sighed, "I couldn't tell you."

"That's my point," Dizzy said as she looked down, she was a little more calm but still she was racked with sobs, "I know it's in your nature to do what you feel is necessary, I know it's impossible to tame you. But I just wish you would think before you act sometimes."

Ranma wanted to hold her, to tell her it would be okay, but how could he when he could not even convince himself, "I admit, it's my turn to be sorry, Dizzy."

The girl clenched her fist and looked like she wanted to do anything but stay where she was, "So that's how it's going to be?" She whispered, "You're just going to continue doing what you do and leave me behind! If that's it I would rather leave now then wait for you to be forced to leave me."

Ranma's eyes widened as the woman suddenly jumped out of bed and ran out the door in nothing but a nightgown. Cursing he jumped out of bed, running after her in only his boxers and following her as she threw the door open. The man sprinted after her as she changed her clothes on the fly and started to take off into the sky. Just barely he managed to grab a hold of her arms and pull her back to the ground where she stood with tear filled eyes and clenched teeth.

"Do you want me to change?" Ranma asked quietly, "I'll stop fighting, I'll stop running, if you want I'd even stop breathing. You want me to change I'll change, because damn it, Dizzy, I CAN'T live without you. Remember what I said when we met again all those years later, back when Hinata thought her father was dead. I said that I lived on because thinking you were alive brought me hope. If you leave now what will I have to live for? And what about Hinata? How do I explain that her mother left because I'm a horrible father who can't even do a good job of taking care of those I love. I know this isn't a game, I'm trying my best. 'Cause… If I didn't try to make it less than it is, it would hurt you even more… So if you want to leave then go, but know that if you do you really won't see me again…"

Ranma knew it was pathetic, but it was the truth, he could even feel his eyes start to get moist, how long had it been since he cried? Years, probably, ever since that day when he wound up alone in the ruins of what had been called Japan. He had cried then because for all of his strength he had no idea what to do. Now he was in a similar situation where one of the people he cared for was about to be lost to him again. And for what, what purpose did all of this serve? He had already lost so much, it would do no good to have him lose something else he cared for. All of those years alone, he had wallowed in his own hate and spent nights in a fitful sleep as he dreamed of fire and blood and death. Then a girl, an angel, had fallen on his doorstep and he had hated her for it. He had wanted to just hate everything, hate what he had become, he had wanted to hate her for trying to save him. But he could not do that. In the end she had saved him from himself and his only regret was that he was unable to do the same because for all intensive purposes, she was an angel and he was just a mortal being. He did not deserve her and so how could he blame her for leaving him behind. Leave him before he was forced to leave her. Maybe she was right after all.

"Go," Ranma said again after a long pause, "please, if it saves you from the pain just get away from me, and take Hinata. Tell her whatever you want! If me being around cause you pain then I'd rather you were gone!"

Dizzy stopped and looked at him for a second before she sighed and shook her head. So many times she had felt sad because he was gone, could she really expect it to be any different this time. Could she just leave, was it really that simple? There would be regrets, that was for sure, but she might be able to deal with that. He was right, she would have to take their daughter with her if she left. She would probably have to go back to the Jellyfish Pirates again for a little while in between finding a home. In the end all she would be doing was running though. She had been running all her life to get away from her trouble, even in the forest with Testament she had been running away, hiding, from all of the others. Then on the airship she had been running then too. She was good at running, at avoiding fights, when faced with a predator the prey will run. Ranma was not a predator though, he was just a man whose world was turned upside down when the two of them met. Yet he took it in stride and accepted her for who she was. Sure he had hated her at first, and after hearing his story she could hardly blame him. Yet in the end it had come down to her running away yet again. Maybe she should fight this time, maybe, at least this time, running was not the right answer.

"You don't cause me pain," Dizzy replied to his yelling with a small voice, as if she was a child being scolded, "I have been running all of my life, Ranma. It was natural for me, I'm such a coward, I really do want peace but even when I do have to fight I just run in the end. No, you don't cause me pain, you just cause me to doubt myself, I get scared and because I'm scared I run. I've been the prey so many times that it's all I know how to do. I see you hurt and it hurts me, so to deal with the pain I run from what causes to the pain. But this time… This time I will fight, at least this time I do not want to run from what's hurting me because in the long run it will probably hurt me more."

There was a pause after that and Ranma and Dizzy just stared back at each other between the open space between them. It was quiet except for the breeze and the leaves drifting along on the wind. Animals scurried around in the background and kicked up small rocks as they did so. The wind blew their clothes and hair around, and Dizzy could see how blue her hair was as it blew into her eyes. She had always been aware of the differences between the two of them. Ranma had been born human, he had black hair and blue eyes, she had blue hair and red eyes. She had wings and a tail, he had nothing at all like these. He looked normal right now. And it was with this that she realized that he was her anchor to the world she lived in now. He was her protector, her savior, if she was his angel, he was her priest.

"I feel horrible right now," Dizzy said at last, "Like I've just been set adrift in an ocean without a life raft. I think I might drowned."

Ranma looked away for a second and then looked back towards her, "I'm not sure what to do, I want to hold you close right now but if I do I'm scared that you'll just walk away. If I have to stay like this I will. If it will keep you here."

"You don't have to," Dizzy said in almost a whisper, almost lost on the wind itself, "I told you, I'm done running away from my pain."

"I would probably keep running after you anyways," Ranma responded, "No matter how much I say different."

Dizzy finally drew a hand across the side of her face to get the hair out of it, "I'm glad though, this is what I really wanted I think. Maybe I could stay and you could keep me from running away again, maybe you could be my life raft."

Ranma smiled and this time he did move forward to embrace her as he had wanted to do some time earlier, "I will be, Dizzy, I will keep you afloat no matter what. And I promise I will think before I act more, if it causes you less pain then that is what I will do."

And with that she wrapped her small arms around his to return his embrace, "Thank you," she kissed him deeply and when they parted she asked him one more thing, "By the way, how did you survive the lava pit?"

Ranma was slightly surprised by the change in subject but smiled nonetheless, "Well it seems that my dragon form has an affinity for things that are hot enough to melt flesh from bone. It's like a hot spring I guess you could say."

Dizzy chuckled slightly, still feeling emotionally drained, "Well that's good to know. Maybe next time I won't overreact."

"That would be a good thing," Ranma said as he lifted her up into his arms and walked her back towards the house, "You don't need things like that to happen again. I know you don't like hurting people. Necro on the other hands seems to have no problem."

Dizzy laughed lightly and responded, "He says he takes offense to that, he was only trying to protect me."

"He was grinning the whole time," Ranma said in astonishment.

The girl laughed even harder and Ranma could not help but grin at her as she smiled at him. They walked upstairs and lay back in bed, tired from everything that had happened. Embracing each other there was a form of peace in the room that could not be penetrated by any outside force. Still, Ranma knew he had other things that needed to get done before that peace would be permanent. For one thing they had to find out who was really behind all the attacks and stop them, because as much as he tried to convince himself he just could not believe that that man he had choked the life out of earlier was the leader. There was someone higher, someone with a lot more power lurking in the shadows.

(End Note.)

Not the end of the overall story, just this chapter. As for my other story, well, I've put that on hold until this is finished. Do not worry, I'm almost done, it just got too hard to work on two stories at the same time. Sorry for any inconvenience. Trust me, when this is done I will continue my work. Man it's hard to work for the fans. Anyways, hope you have enjoyed the story.


	9. 9: More and More Like Then

Ranma 1/2

I Saw a Light Shining and Thought of You.

A R1/2 and GGX/XX crossover. This takes place after chapter 8, which does not come as a surprise as it is chapter 9. I hope you enjoy it as a many of you seem to have, I appreciate the support. By the way, I'm sure you're wondering why this has taken so long, one word virus. Specifically Backdoor-CVT. Had to totally reload my hard drive and lost a lot of data, sorry for the wait.

Chapter 9: More and More Like Then.

Threw one more punch, feeling the heat beat down on his body and the sweat drip from his toned body. It had been a while since he had actually been in a practice that made him push himself hard enough to sweat and it felt good. He had become rusty after years without fighting anyone of his skill level; Ranma was the only one he knew that was even close. Lifting his bamboo umbrella over his shoulder and twirling in a circle, using his momentum to extend his arm and add force to his attack. Hitting his desired spot, the man planted his foot and stopped the motion of his body, the heavy umbrella spinning around behind his back and allowing the man to draw it above his head and bring it to a halt with a two-handed grip on the hilt of the umbrella. Ryouga swung it a few more times before he placed the weapon on the ground at the edge of his practice area and switched to strait punches and kicks for another hour, jumping into the air and spinning in a flurry of kicks and punches that worked with the momentum of his muscled body rather than just relying on his strength as he usually would. After an hour of this the man came to a halt, took a few deep breaths and let his aura build up around him, he had been experimenting with using another form of energy that was not driven by negative emotions. So far he had not come up with anything that worked consistently but that did not stop him from trying.

Concentrating, he brought a slight aura around himself, using his normal emotion and working on kneading it into something different. He had been close these last few days but it was hard to change something you relied on so much. Keeping the aura tight around his body, the man concentrated harder and slowly the color started to change to something different. It had been getting a little easier lately and Ryouga felt he was close to figuring out how to change it. Opening his eyes, realizing that he had closed them in concentration just a bit earlier, the man looked at his aura and noticed the change. It was not devoid of green but it was bluer. Dissipating his aura the man tried to walk but felt his body go numb and he collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud that sent spirals of dust spinning into the air. The man blinked in confusion and experimentally tried to move one hand, clenching it and unclenching it, then the other. Once he was confident that his arms would move he tried his legs and found that they responded sluggishly. Picking himself up from the ground, Ryouga slowly hobbled into the house and collapsed on the couch.

At that moment Baiken strolled into the room with snacking on a few crackers, her hair handing loose and her kimono closed just tight enough to keep her modest. Unusually, she was not carrying her sword, and Ryouga knew that she was also not carrying her assorted collection of other gadgets she used to make up for her lost arm. She paused to balk at him for a second before she sighed and shook her head at him and walked up to his weak form. Leaning down, a few strands of her pink hair falling over her shoulder, she inspected him for a second with her one good eye and shook her head before straitening up and clucking her tongue at him.

"See, this is what you get for overworking yourself," The woman stated.

Ryouga blinked and grunted.

The pink haired woman drew the strands out of her face and sighed, "You are hopeless, Ryouga. What were you doing anyways?"

With a sigh the man started explaining, "I was trying to develop some attacks that did not rely on negative energy. I've become so reliant on it that my body started to shut itself down."

The woman sat down in the chair across from him with a heavy sigh and shook her head at him. It was not the first time he had done this, she knew that, but it was the first time that he had gotten so far. She applauded him for his attempts and even encouraged it even if it was starting to take its toll on him. He knew that it was taking a toll on his body and still he insisted on causing harm to himself. The only part that worried her was that he stood a chance of pushing himself harder than he could take.

"Why are you doing this?" The woman asked

"I need to get rid of my reliance on this energy," The man said simply, "It's like a drug I'm addicted to. It may be harmful in the end to keep relying on it."

"I see," Baiken said, "Excuse me for a second."

With that the woman disappeared into the kitchen and after a few minutes came back with a hot cup of coffee and sat down in the chair again. She took a sip from the cup and set it down on the table in front of her, studying the man for a second. Sweat had dried on his face and she noticed a slight twitch every so often in his muscles. Even now, at the end of his power when he was almost ready to pass out, he was still trying to fight against the odds.

"I understand why you do this," the woman said as she looked towards an open window that shone on her across the room, "I just can't accept it. We've been through a lot and to lose you now would be… I don't even know how to say it."

The man stared at her in silence, though he was unsure of what to say in response he opened his mouth anyways, because he figured right now anything was better than nothing, "I'm doing this for people that are important to me. The very fact that I'm still here just means I've held out longer than most. I don't want to hurt others because of this monster eating me from the inside. I care about everyone too much."

Baiken nodded and rested her arm on the arm of the chair she sat in with her head leaning against her fist and stared at him, "I know, and the problem is that I sense that this is a family legacy for you somehow. Do you know the history of your family, Ryouga?"

The man looked over at her and shook his head, "No, I have never known my family that good. Our curse is to get lost all of the time, at first I thought it was only blood inherited but it has to be in the name. Mom is the same way."

"I see. There has to be some reason for it," Baiken said in a thoughtful tone, "is there a way to find out?"

The man shook his head, "Probably my father knew."

There was a knock on the door then and Baiken rose to answer it since Ryouga could do little else but twitch. Closing his eyes with a sigh the man let his tiredness take over and drifted off into sleep for the time being. As he did, dreams came to him and then memories of a life that had passed him by so long ago. A young Ryouga was standing at his father's side, about three feet tall with shaggy black hair unbound by his normal bandana. The young boy looked up at the figure, face blurry and unperceivable; he could see the figure looking down at him. Rain was falling and the sky was gray and hazy as Ryouga blinked away the rain that fell in his eyes he heard words spoken from his father.

"Ryouga, my son," The man said as he knelt down and the boy got a clear look of the man, smiling though obviously sad with unkempt hair that was short in front and long in back, he had a close trimmed full beard, "Remember this always, our curse and our power was dictated by our ancestors. You are the inheritor of the curse but your blood has also gained the power that lies in the Hibiki blood. Make no mistake though; this power will consume you if you can't control it. Son, be careful of this because it feeds on negativity and to give into that is to lose control of yourself."

The young Ryouga stared at his father blankly, "I'm sorry, dad, I don't understand."

Smiling the man ruffled his son's hair, "I know, and unfortunately you'll probably forget about this by the time you do. Just try not to let the negative things get to you son. I have to go now."

With that the man stood and turned to walk away, and the young child watched him walk away. It took him a while but he realized that he had just been left behind by his own family with no way to get home. Running after the shadow, Ryouga tried to keep the man in his sight but he tripped and landed in a puddle. His knee was skinned and blood and one arm had a bruised but he eventually stood and wiped the tears from his eyes. As he stared at the retreating form of his father a hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to see a smiling kid his age with a braided pig-tail. Even then, Ranma had been there for him even in the weirdest way.

The man opened his eyes, waking up from his dream and finding himself staring at his hand. It was a normal hand that any other person could have but through it flowed something that he had never even though of as being strange. It was his blood, the blood of his ancestors, which was his curse and his blessing. He would be forever burdened by the life that was given to him. With a sigh the man looked around and saw that he was in the same place he had been when he had gone to sleep. Standing from the couch he was sleeping on he started to walk up the stairs and then paused and looked around slowly. Something was not right; there was a certain smell in the air and a dark stain on the floor.

Bending down, Ryouga wiped a finger through it and sniffed it, blood as he had thought in the first place. There was a trail leading up the stairs and he followed the trail with a cold feeling in his veins. Coming to the door to his own room he slowly opened it and when he did there was a scene he had trouble coming to terms with at first. On the floor was Baiken, her robe tattered and her hair disheveled. Her sword was still held in her hand if loosely, she was on her knees but that was only because she was being held upright by her neck. The blood had not been from her though, she was cut but the fight had not started while they were downstairs. Then he saw the creature that held the pink haired woman up was not exactly human, as evidenced from the multiple cuts and massive blood loss that it suffered while just standing there.

The thing let out a small sound, like rattling bones, and then it threw its head back and began to laugh. Or at least Ryouga could only assume it was a laugh because it sounded like someone playing the xylophone on someone's ribs. It began to squeeze Baiken's throat and the man that was paralyzed with disbelief was then the man that snapped forward like an atomic rubber band. His fist landed squarely in the monsters face and it dropped the woman from its hands before falling to the floor with its face firmly caved in. Ryouga did not even pause to see if Baiken was alive, he continued his relentless assault on the body. Eventually there was nothing left but pieces that he had torn apart from the thing, and yet somehow they still moved. The man had never seen anything like it before but he knew that if he vaporized it there would be no need to worry about what would happen next. Picking up all of the pieces the man ran out of the house and precede the shoot blast after blast of energy at them until there was nothing left.

Once he was done with that the man turned back towards the house and ran back upstairs to see if his wife was okay. What he found when he got there was not too promising, there were multiple cuts and bruises and blood was running from the corner of her mouth, indicating there might be internal injury. She was still breathing though, even if it was very ragged and sounded too labored to be normal. The man did not even waist the time to check if she was coherent, picking up the woman's body he ran out the door and into the street towards the nearest hospital he could think of. He was out of breath by the time he got there so instead of trying to speak he kicked open the doors and slid to a stop in front of the reception desk. The nurse looked up at him with her eyebrow cocked questioningly.

Ryouga took a deep breath and managed to rasp, "She got in a fight and was hurt, she needs a doctor or she might die."

The nurse looked at the woman in his arms and turned to a phone, speaking into quickly she hung up and moments later a group of people with a stretcher came into the waiting room and managed to pry Baiken from Ryouga's hands. All the man could do was watch as they began their actions to try to keep the woman alive. He sat down heavily on the seat in the waiting room and rested his head in his hands.

"You look depressed," A voice said from his side as he sat there, "I'm sure she'll be okay. This is a good hospital."

Running a hand through his long black hair Ryouga turned towards the voice, an old woman, and asked, "Do you have a phone on you? I need to call someone."

"Why yes I do as a matter of fact," The woman pulled a phone out and gave it to him, "Here you are."

"Thank you, I'll give it back but this is kind of a private conversation," Ryouga said as he walked to an inconspicuous corner.

A couple of miles away a phone rang and a sleepy hand reached out from under the covers after a while to answer it, "Yeah," the sleepy voice grumbled, "Who is it?"

There was a break and for a minute there was no reaction, then Ranma sat up in his bed a look of anger on his face. It was so intense that he woke up his companion and she sat up and, upon seeing the look on his face, started to worry. His hands were white and his hands shook with the emotion.

"Who did it?" Ranma asked the person on the other side of the phone, "What do you mean you don't know? Okay, sorry, I'm just a little angry. Not it's not you're fault. I know. I know! Look, were are you… Okay we'll meet you there in a few minutes. Of course I'm bringing everyone. Especially Kaneda!" With that Ranma hung up the phone and looked over at Dizzy, "Get Hinata and Kaneda, we're going to the hospital."

The half-Gear looked over at him with concern, "What happened?"

"Some-thing, attacked Baiken and she's in the hospital," Ranma said as he rolled out of bed and got dressed.

Dizzy followed him as he ran out of the room, putting a shirt on as he did so and running into Hinata's room where both Kaneda and her where sleeping. Waking them up he turned and told Dizzy to call a cab, it would be easier to drive everyone there even though it would be faster by foot to run there, at least for him. The car arrived quicker than expected and Ranma held his three companions into the car. Closing the door after them he told Dizzy to take care and he would meet them at the hospital. Quickly, Ranma ran off towards the hospital, hoping he would get there before the bad feeling he had grew into a reality. He already knew that Ryouga did not handle negative things well and if he let this build up too much Ranma could not even imagine the consequences.

Leaping from building to building, using the rooftop and street alternatively to keep his momentum going, the man eventually came upon the hospital and ran inside to find the man sitting down in the waiting room and handing a phone back to a woman next to him. Ranma took a deep breath to regain his breath and walked up to the man slowly, he seemed alright for now so there was no need to worry for the time being.

"Hey, buddy," Ranma said as he approached, "How you doin'?"

Ryouga turned to him and shook his head, "I don't know; I just don't know right now. Angry, sad, irritated, among other things."

The pig-tailed man sighed, "I wish I could do something for you right now. This is something that all my martial arts can't fix."

"No, there's no need for any vengeance here," Ryouga said as he stared back down at the floor, "I already killed the thing that did it to her."

Sitting down next to Ryouga, Ranma placed a hand on his shoulder, "The only thing to do now is let the doctors help her… And be there for her."

"Ranma," Ryouga whispered the name and turned to him, "I wish that I could take this all back. Her life has already been so bad. I was just starting to try to make it better and then… this…"

"That's enough," Ranma exclaimed as he squeezed the man's shoulder, "Getting depressed over this won't help her. Baiken needs your support."

"Do you know her story?" The question caught Ranma off guard.

"No, I know she lost a lot, but other than that I know nothing," He answered honestly.

Turning in his seat, Ryouga looked at him for a second before he looked back down at the ground. There was nothing he wanted more than to tell her story to him but he had no idea if it would be okay to divulge such a secret in front of so many people. Rising from his seat he motioned for Ranma to follow him and they went off into a side passage. When he was sure that the two of them were alone where nobody could sneak up on them and listen in private the man started to talk.

"You know she is like us, one of the few surviving Japanese from the ruins of Japan. Her family was also killed just like ours, everything sent into burning ruin with her looking on helplessly. The way she lost her eye and her arm was the difference between her and us. In some ways, she was braver than us, you see, I can not speak for you, Ranma, but when those monsters attacked I froze. I imagine you did to." He looked over at the man for confirmation and saw a subtle, regrettable, nod, "On the other hand she tried to fight the people that killed her friends and family. They believed they were being merciful when they did not kill her but in the end that only made it worse. It started with depression then escalated into a need for vengeance, after that she honed her skills so she could get to "That Man" and kill him. You see, he was the one that decided to give her mercy. That was only after he decided to take her eye and arm from her. This all happened when she was only twelve. I estimate she's in her thirties right about now."

Looking over at Ranma he could see the surprise on the man's face, "Twenty-something years. That's a long time to hold hatred in your heart."

With a nod, Ryouga conceded that point, "Just recently she told me that she was done with her quest. I was happy to know that because I knew I would not have to worry about her leaving me for some foolhardy reason. Not that I would not try to follow her but it would still be hard to stop her even if I did find her."

It was about this time that Dizzy walked through the door with the children in tow and Ranma waved at them as they did, "The others are here," Turning back to Ryouga, Ranma spoke, "I know you're concerned about her wanting vengeance. I don't think she'll be that way, you married a strong woman and I guarantee this is not going to do anything but make her angry."

"Thank you, Ranma." Ryouga said gratefully, "Let's go join the others and wait for her to get better."

Ryouga nodded and the two of them started walking over towards where the others were waiting for them. It would be a long time before the doctors were done operating and there would be a lot to talk about. Days passed quickly, Ryouga only left to change clothes and take a shower. Ranma had gotten a job outside so he had to keep leaving but he kept with his friend as much as he could. It was a night in the emergency room and several nights in critical condition staying in the recovery room. Days passed, then several weeks, until a doctor came out and informed Ryouga that she was in stable condition. Ranma arrived around noon and found out himself. Calling Dizzy at home he told her to bring Kaneda and Hinata with her, she acknowledged him and arrived a couple hours later. There were only a couple visitors allowed at a time so Ranma allowed everyone to go in before him and waited patiently in the waiting room.

In the room, before anyone came in, Ryouga was sitting by the side of Baiken's bed as she woke, "It feels so good to see you're eye open."

The woman smiled at him as best she could, "You're a sorry sight, Ryouga."

"I know," The man said as he grinned in relief, at least she was in a good mood, "For a while there I was worried that you would never wake."

The pink haired girl reached her hand out and put it on top of his, "Hey, I'll have none of that. You know I don't like anyone pitying me."

Nodding the man looked down at her hand, so delicate even after years of handling a sword and yet so strong, "I hope it's alright, I told Ranma your story."

She looked away towards the light of the sun coming in through the window then, deep in thought he could only assume, "No, that's fine, I'm not ashamed of my life. There is a lot that I regret but nothing I would take back, I would never have met you and I would never be where I am right now."

"If you never met me you would have never got hurt," The man retorted and there came a disapproving noise from the woman.

"No, I would have gotten killed," Baiken responded as she turned back to him, "That is the simple fact. I have given up my quest for vengeance because of you."

"So you are still going to keep your promise?"

Frowning the woman made another disapproving noise this one with her tongue, "Idiot, I don't have any reason to start it again. You think just because I lost to some random monster that I'm going after "That Man" again? How long have you lived with me Ryouga? You know better than that."

There came a knock on the door then and it opened to reveal Kaneda, Hinata, and Dizzy standing in the doorway. Kaneda took one look at his mother laying in bed and ran up to her, looking as if he was going to pounce. He stopped at the last second and settled for just a hug as he let tears fall from his green eyes. Baiken smiled down at the boy and ran her hands through his spiky black hair. The boy stayed like that for a long time and the room was silent as the young boy just took comfort in his mother's warm embrace.

Finally the boy stopped and looked up, "I'm glad you're alright mom, when are you coming home?"

The woman smiled at him and grinned; "Now if I had my say in it but the doctors want me to stay here a little long to make sure I heal alright."

Dizzy and Hinata walked up as the young boy nodded and stood back, wiping his eyes, "How are you feeling, Baiken?"

"I'm feeling alright, just a little tired," She answered Dizzy's question as best she could; "Really I'm surprised I'm alive. That thing just did not die."

"It does if you disintegrate it," Ryouga muttered.

"What?" Baiken said.

"Nothing."

The woman cocked her eyebrow at him but turned back to Dizzy, "I Ranma doing alright? I expected him to be with you."

Waving her hand, the blue haired girl dismissed Baiken's worries, "There are only a certain number of people allowed into your room at a time. He decided to wait outside, I'm sure he'll be in to talk with you later."

"Ah," The other woman said with relief, "I'm glad, it would be no good for such a good couple to be broken up."

Dizzy blushed but calmed down a second later, "Well, I don't want to be long, I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Dizzy turned as if to leave but stopped as she thought of something, "Baiken, I just wanted to let you know that you are like a sister to me also. If you have any trouble, anything you need to talk about, don't be afraid to talk to me about it."

Nodding the woman said, "Thank you Dizzy."

With that Dizzy walked out the door and was followed soon after by Hinata, and a couple hours later by Kaneda and finally Ryouga. As the man walked out into the hall he was surprised to find Ky, Jam, and Potemkin there. He was especially surprised to see a grumpy looking Sol standing behind all of them looking just as disgruntled as he always did. Ryouga shook his head in disbelief, how that man could be so negative he had no idea, and he was the master of being depressed. One by one they went in the room; actually it would have been more accurate to say four of them and then one of them. Sol was the last in and the last out, and he looked with disbelief at Ryouga as he came out.

"That woman has some serious issues," The man said.

Ryouga nodded and shrugged, "Yeah, I know."

"But she's alright," Sol said with a roguish grin that the man had never shown before and Ryouga had definitely never seen, "Take care of her boy."

"I guess it's my turn," Ranma said as he finally stood, "I'll be back in a few."

Ryouga watched in questioningly as he went in, it was strange for his friend to be so hesitant but it was not Ryouga's place to question. Ranma had many thoughts going though his mind as he walked down the hall to the room. The white walls seemed to reflect the sound of his steps; it amplified them in the hospital halls. Coming to the door he stopped and knocked twice, waiting for a second outside before taking a deep breath and entering. What waited him was a woman that seemed unhurt and very pissed at his very presence in the room.

"About time you visited me," The woman said in irritation.

Ranma held his hands up in surrender for a second and replaced them in his pockets, "I just wasn't sure what kind of condition you'd be in."

With a fed up sound, like a kind with a speech impediment trying to say hump, the woman said, "Well as you see I'm fine."

"I see that," Ranma said, "I just want to talk to you about Ryouga. There is a lot I did not know about you. I doubt he told you anything about himself. He's not the most outgoing person."

"You don't say?" Baiken said sarcastically, "What would you know of him?"

Ranma sat down in the chair next to her bed, "You see he has never really had much in the way of friends. Having a curse like his tends to have a negative effect on making friends for long. When I met him we both went to the same school and I would help him get to school. One day I went to pick him up and found him running through the street. It was raining that day and he slipped and skinned his knee horribly. I took him to the doctor and got him bandaged up, he told me later that he was trying to run after his father," Ranma looked at her and she remained silent so he continued with a deep breath, "What I'm about to say, I don't know if I should but for his sake and yours I'm going to. You see, I've always known Ryouga was stronger than me, stronger than a lot of people were. There is a reason for that, which he probably forgot himself, and that is that he has the blood of demons running though him. I don't know the exact details but he told me that a long time ago there was a war between to clans and his made a deal with demons to defeat their enemies. The enemies gave their family name the curse of misdirection, not just his blood, there is no escape from that. The more of the demon blood you have in you the more powerful the curse is."

Baiken blinked, "But Kaneda does not get lost."

Nodding, Ranma conceded that, "I know it seems he did not inherit much of the Hibiki blood. I would suggest you be careful though, if you find yourself starting to end up in strange places, let him know immediately. He has way of dealing with it that I can't even fathom. Also, stay close to him; he has been alone for most of his life so don't stray too far from his side. As his friend I ask this of you, his wife."

Ranma stood and bowed low, his pigtail flopping over his head and inverting itself, Baiken blinked and shook her head, "Stand up, you look ridiculous, I never planned on leaving him in the first place."

The man stood and sighed, "Thank you. I'll let you rest now."

As the man turned to leave, Baiken spoke again, "Wait, Ranma, thank you for coming to talk to me, you are a good friend. Ranma smiled and walked out the door leaving the girl to rest in her room.

This is the end of this chapter and the part. There will be a third part when I get around to it. If it comes out like I want it will deal with Hinata and Kaneda mostly, and they will be a bit older than just children. Hope those who have enjoyed my other stories will like this one also. Also, if you are wondering about my other story, it is on hold until I finish this. I might switch in the middle but do not hold your breath. I already experimented with writing two stories at a time and it is way too hard. Sorry for those who are waiting for an update, the next chapter of Amnesia is almost done anyways. I am sorry, once again, for my own ineptitude on such matters.


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